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A  STUDY  OF  SUFFIX  RIME   IN 
OTFRID'S  EVANGELIENBUCH 


'fl 


A  DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED  TO  THE  BOARD    OF    UNIVERSITY    STUDIES  OF  THE  JOHNS    HOPKINS    UNIVERSITY 
IN  CONFORMITY  WITH  THE  REQUIREMENTS  FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 


BY 


THOMAS  HOWARD  FOWLER 


^-C 


i^fpRNlA, 


BALTIMORE 

igos 


A  STUDY  OF  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID'S 

EVANGELIENBUCH 


A  STUDY  OF  SUFFIX  RIME  IN 
OTFRID'S  EVANGELIENBUCH 


A  DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED  TO  THE  BOARD    OF    UNIVERSITY   STUDIES  OF  THE  JOHNS    HOPKINS    UNIVERSITY 
IN  CONFORMITY  WITH  THE  REQUIREMENTS  FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 


BY 


THOMAS  HOWARD  FOWLER 


OF  THE 

UNIVERr 

OF 


BALTIMORE 
1905 


Im^@^ 

w 

i 

i?r 

BALTIMORE,  MD.,  U.  8.  A. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction    7 

Classification  of  the  Rimes  8 

The   Ultima    10 

Penultimate  Rime    18 

Penultimate-Antepenultimate    Rime    42 

Antepenultimate  Rime  44 

Other  Old  High  German  Poems   48 

Identical  Rime   49 

Summary    62 

Vita     63 


A  STUDY  OF  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID'S 
EVANGELIENBUCH 

Introduction 

The  earliest  important  treatment  of  Otfrid's  rime  was  that 
of  \\'ilhelm  Grimm  in  1850,  under  ''  Zur  Geschichte  des 
Reims,"  found  in  his  Kleinere  Schriften  4,  159  f.  So  far, 
however,  as  Otfrid  is  concerned,  the  major  part  of  the  work 
has  to  do  only  with  identical  rime,  so  that  it  can  not  be  regarded 
as  a  complete  study  of  the  Old  High  German  author. 

In  1874  Zarncke  published  an  article  entitled  ''  Die  Reime 
des  9.  und  10.  Jahrhunderts  "  in  the  Berichte  der  sachsischen 
Gesellschaft  der  Wissenschaften  26,  p.  34  f.,  but  as  this  study 
is  almost  wholly  limited  to  rimes  in  which  at  least  one  word  is 
a  root  syllable,  the  sections  devoted  to  Otfrid  do  not  in  any 
sense  present  a  full  or  satisfactory  view  of  the  entire  system 
of  rimes. 

Still  later,  in  ZfdA.,  16,  p.  117  f.,  Wilmanns,  in  what  may 
be  regarded  as  a  continuation  of  Zarncke's  method,  treated 
those  rimes  in  which  one  or  both  words  are  wholly  root  syl- 
lables, styling  these  stem  rimes ;  other  sorts  of  rime  he  re- 
garded as  suffix  rime,  although  there  is  no  good  reason  why 
rimes  extending  over  more  than  one  syllable,  such  as  frono : 
scono,  should  be  classified  as  suffix  rime  rather  than  stem  rime. 
The  term  is,  however,  a  convenient  one,  and  for  lack  of  a 
better  has  been  retained  in  the  following  pages. 

Paul,  in  the  second  edition  of  the  Grundriss  II,  2,  p.  109  f., 
and  Koegel,  Deutsche  Litteraturgeschichte  I,  2,  23  f.,  have  also 
made  contributions  to  the  study  of  rime  in  Otfrid,  but  neither 
represents  a  detailed  study  of  suffix  rime,  and  the  point  of 
view  from  which  they  regard  many  of  the  rimes  is,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  writer,  not  altogether  correct. 


8  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID 

In  the  following  pages,  therefore,  a  study  of  suffix  rime  in 
Otfrid  is  proposed,  including: 

I.  Penultimate  rime.     (Type  frono:  scono) 
11.  Penultimate-antepenultimate    rime.      (Type    folgetun : 
woltun) 

III.  Antepenultimate  rime.     (Type  worahta:  forahta) 

A  further  detailed  discussion  of  root  syllable  rime  is  not 
deemed  necessary,  and  it  will  be  considered  only  in  connection 
with  identical  rime. 

One  of  the  main  questions  which  the  present  investigation 
will  aim  to  settle  is :  What  minimum  amount  of  similarity  in 
the  penultimate  or  antepenultimate  syllable  will  justify  us  in 
asserting  the  existence  of  penultimate  or  antepenultimate  rime  ? 
In  order  to  answer  this  question  the  rimes  will  be  classified 
under  various  rubrics,  that  they  may  thereby  lend  themselves 
more  easily  to  observation,  and  that  interesting  facts  may  thus 
be  brought  to  notice.  All  evidence  of  varying  rime  usage  in 
the  different  books  will  be  gathered  and  subjected  to  scrutiny, 
with  the  intention  of  offering  it  as  a  contribution  to  the  much 
mooted  question  of  the  order  in  which  the  various  books  were 
written. 

Classification  of  the  Rimes 

The  statistics  given  by  Wilmanns  ^  for  so-called  stem  rime 
are  not  entirely  accurate.  The  correct  figures  for  this  as  well 
as  for  suffix  rime  are  hence  given  below: 


I 

II 

III 

IV 

V               Total 

Length. 

1240 

1244 

1576 

1572 

1472       _  7104 

Root  syllable  rime. 

261 

383 

492 

462 

406             2004 

21% 

30.8% 

31-2% 

29.4% 

27.6%    —   28.2% 

Suffix  rime. 

971 

861 

1084 

1109 

1066        —  5091 

78.2% 

69.2% 

68.8% 

70.6% 

72.4%           71.7% 

In  this  connection  it  should  be  remembered  that  there  are  eight 
instances  of  rimeless  verses  ^  in  Book  I,  and  one  in  Book  IV. 
From  these  figures  it  will  be  seen  that  Book  V,  and  especially 


*ZfdA.,  16,  117  f. 

'  Koegel,  Deutsche  Litteraturgeschichte  I,  2,  23  f. 


CLASSIFICATION    OF    THE    RIMES  g 

I,  contain  the  smallest  amount  of  root  syllable  rime,  and  there- 
fore have  a'  larger  proportion  of  suffix,  i.  c.  penultimate  and 
antepenultimate  rime. 

Suffix  rime  includes,  then,  71.7  per  cent  of  the  total  number 
of  rimes,  so  that  the  ratio  of  its  occurrence  to  that  in  which  one 
or  both  riming  words  are  root  syllables  is  about  2^/2  to  i. 

As  penultimate  and  antepenultimate  rime  thus  assume  the 
major  role  in  Otfrid  the  question  naturally  suggests  itself  why 
they  have  never  been  examined  with  the  same  care  with  which 
root  syllable  rime  has  been  studied. 

The  answer  may  be  found  in  Zarncke,"^  who,  after  a  discus- 
sion of  the  type  just  mentioned,  remarks: 

"  Neben  der  reimenden  letzten  Hebung  lasst  nun  Otfrid 
auch  gerne  noch  die  voraufgehende  Silbe  oder  mehrere  Silben 
mitreimen,  so  gerne,  dass  diese  zweisilbigen  (und  dreisilbigen) 
Reime  bei  ihm  die  Ueberzahl  ausmachen,  und  recht  eigentlich 
den  Charakter  seiner  Reime  bestimmen.  Eine  Statistik  der- 
selben  wiirde  nicht  ohne  Interesse  sein,  aber  beschrankende 
Bestimmungen  lassen  sich  nicht  feststellen,  da  das  ganze 
Farbenspiel  vom  vollstandigen  Zusammenklingen  bis  zur  abso- 
luten  Reimlosigkeit  durchlaufen  wird,  so  dass  man  kaum  sagen 
kann,  wo  die  Grenze  festzustellen,  wo  noch  ein  ungenaues 
Mitreimen,  wo  bereits  Reimlosigkeit  anzunehmen  sei.  Nur 
das  Eine  wird  sich  aus  statistischer  Beobachtung  geben : 
offenbar  hat  sich  Otfrid  allmahlig  in  den  dem  Ohre  schmei- 
chelnden  vollen  oder  doch  nahezu  vollen  Zweiklang  hineinge- 
funden.  ]\lan  vgl.  z.  B.  die  Reime  in  I.  4,  vielleicht  das  erste 
Kapitel  das  Otfrid  dichtete,  mit  denen  in  der  Widmung  an 
Ludwig.  Die  im  Anfange  nur  nicht  verschmahten  Doppel- 
reime  sind  allmahlig  immer  mehr  die  Regel  geworden." 

Now,  while  the  above-mentioned  difficulty  is  a  real  one,  it 
is  not  so  insurmountable  as  Zarncke  suggests ;  for  with  the 
material  before  one,  and  classified  properly  according  to  both 
the  accurate  and  inaccurate  types,  it  is  possible  to  arrive  at 
results  that  not  only  afford  a  better  understanding  of  the  nature 
of  penultimate  and  antepenultimate  rime,  and  of  the  principle 
involved  in  these  rimes,  but  that  also  furnish  a  standard  by 

'^  Berichte  der  sachsischen  Gesellschaft  26,  39. 


10  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OFF  RID 

which  to  judge  to  what  extent  inaccuracies  of  rime  are  com- 
patible with  the  riming  character  of  the  syhable  in  question. 

The  Ultima 

In  discussing  the  rimes  that  extend  over  two  or  three  syl- 
lables, it  is  most  convenient  and  logical  to  start  with  a  con- 
sideration of  the  ultima,  especially  since  this  syllable  is  almost 
always  accurately  rimed. 

The  exceptions,  where  the  vowels  are  entirely  different,  are 
quite  rare,  and  the  latter  are  in  all  cases  ^  followed  by  the 
consonant  n,  while  the  initial  consonants  of  these  syllables  arc 
usually  identical.  Cf.  gisuason  :  miiasiin ;  faron  :  onin.  In 
these  few  instances '  it  is,  then,  the  consonants  that  supply  the 
element  of  identity  for  rime  in  the  final  syllable.  We  may  dis- 
tinguish, therefore,  three  classes  of  rimes  in  so  far  as  the 
ultima  is  concerned : 

I.  The  initial  consonants  of  the  ultima  are  identical.  Cf. 
siti :  noti;  forahta  :  zvorahfa. 

II.  The  initial  consonants  of  the  ultima  are  not  identical  but 
similar.     Cf.  zvari:  sconi;  rigildn:  segenon. 

III.  The  initial  consonants  of  the  ultima  are  neither  identi- 
cal nor  similar.     Cf.  higinnan  :  belgan;  Jwhi:  dati. 

Of  these  three  classes  I  is  by  far  the  largest,  including  4265 
rimes,  that  is  83.8  per  cent  of  the  total  number  of  suffix  rimes. 
The  predominance  of  such  rimes  in  which  the  final  syllables 
are  identical  is  not  to  be  ascribed  to  accident,  but  is  due  to  a 
conscious  eft'ort  on  the  part  of  Otfrid,  as  can  be  shown  from  a 
study  of  his  synonyms.  Let  us  take,  for  instance,  the  words 
abulgi,  zorn,  and  heizimiati,  meaning  in  general  "  anger." 

An  examination  of  the  rimes  of  heizmuati,  which  are  4  in 
number,  shows  that  they  are  all  with  noti,  i.  e.  with  a  word 
whose  final  syllable  is  identical  with  heizmuati  (I  20,  2;  III  20, 
129 ;  IV  19.  57  ;  IV  30.  8).  Otfrid  might  have  used  abulgi :  noti, 
and  the  former  word  occurs  just  as  often  in  the  text  as 
heizmuati,  being  used  twice  in  rime  out  of  a  total  of  4  in- 

'  Cf.  Erdmann's  large  edit,  of  Otfrid.     Introd.  LXVIII. 
"  About   12,   so   few  that  they  may  be  included  in  the  three  classes 
immediately  following. 


THE   ULTIMA  II 

stances,  but  as  this  rime  would  have  destroyed  the  identity  of 
the  final  syllable  he  refrained  from  doing  so. 

Likewise,  of  the  two  rimes  of  come,  one  is  with  zvaiuic  (IV 
30.  9),  according  to  the  above  principle,  which  would  have 
been  violated  had  either  Cihulge  or  Jicicuiuate  been  used  in- 
stead; the  other  is  zornchorne  (IV  26.  2),  an  example  of 
accurate  penultimate  rime. 

Again,  we  have  the  group  gah'i,  snelll,  and  ila,  meaning 
"haste"  or  "quickness,"  and  of  these  gain  occur  17  times  in 
rime,  15  of  which  are  accurate  penultimate  rimes.  The  other 
two  are  gaJii :  zvlhl  (I  8.  13),  and  gdhlihdJn  (V  4.  25).  In 
either  place  siiellJ  could  have  stood  in  rime  instead  of  gdhi,  but 
such  a  rime  would  have  done  away  with  the  identity  of  the 
final  syllables,  and  its  absence  may  be  explained  on  this 
ground.^ 

The  same  observation  may  be  made  in  the  case  of  the  verbs 
(gi)gdhen  and  (gi)ilen,  gigdhen  in  some  inflectional  form  ap- 
pearing in  rime  8  times,  6  of  which  are  accurate  penultimate 
rimes,  the  other  2  being  gigdhe:  gihohc  (I  i.  32),  and  gigdhen: 
gihdhen  (III  16.  20).  If  we  substitute  in  the  one  case  gi-lle 
and  in  the  other  gi-Jlen,  it  will  appear  why  Otfrid  did  not  use 
these  latter  forms. 

x\gain,  the  group  of  words  signifying  "  sin,  crime,"  which 
are :  siinta,  meina,  akust,  missiddt,  iiharmiiati,  and  fravili. 
The  rimes  of  sunta,  which  are  12  in  number,  are  of  the  accurate 
penultimate  type  of  rime,  as  sunta  :wunta,  with  but  4  excep- 
tions, 3  of  which  come  under  consideration  here.  They  are 
worton:  siinton  (II  7.  14;  IV  22.  34)  and  scolfa:  suntd  (I  4. 
12).  Meinon  and  meind  are  in  order  here  in  the  place  of 
sitnton,  suntd,  but  the  rule  for  the  identity  of  the  final  syllable 
interferes  with  their  use.  In  a  similar  manner,  there  are  8 
rimes  of  iihannuatl,  of  which  6  are  accurate  penultimate  rimes, 
while  the  remaining  2  are  nbannuatl:  noti  (II  5.  7),  and 
nharniuatl.\ndti  (I  18.  13).  Had  fravili  been  substituted  for 
iiharmuatJ  it  would  have  resulted  in  a  difference  between  the 
final  syllables. 

^  Of  course  no  form  of  ila  could  have  been  used  here,  as  it  belongs  to 
a  declension  in  \vhich  the  final  vowel  is  always  different  from  that  of 
the  other  two  words  of  this  group. 


12  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID 

We  have  in  Otfrid  two  verbs  meaning  "  to  think,"  thcnken 
and  wdnen,  and  there  are  ii  instances  of  rimes  of  the  former 
with  forms  of  wirken,  in  w^hich  some  form  of  wdnen  might 
have  been  used,  instead  of  thenkcn,  had  the  initial  consonant 
of  the  final  syllable  been  the  same. 

Again,  the  group  lioh,  diuri,  driit,  gimiiati,  zeis,  signifying 
"  dear."  There  are  9  rimes  of  dinra,  girnuati,  and  :!jei:j  in 
various  inflectional  forms  that  concern  us,  namely :  dinra :  wdra 
(IV  35.  19;  V  23.  120),  dhiron'.zvdron  (IV  33.  35),  diuri: 
mdri  (16.  16),  diuri:  heri  (IV  4.  22),  diiiru  :  mdni  (V  25.  22), 
gimiiati:  heroti  (IV  11.  23),  giniuafe:biete  (III  6.  30),  zcizo: 
snazo  (II  8.  15).  In  all  these  9  rimes  some  one  of  the  other 
words  of  this  group  might  have  been  employed  but  for  the 
striving  after  identity  of  final  syllable  described  above. 

Of  verbs  of  ''saying"  there  are  11  ultima  rimes  of  forms 
of  sagen  with  other  words,  in  which,  if  some  other  verb  of 
"  saying "  as  gehan  or  sprechan  were  substituted,  the  final 
syllables  would  no  longer  be  identical. 

There  is  also  one  rime  of  redino:  forasagono  (II  18.  3),  for 
which  redio,  of  like  meaning  though  of  less  frequent  occur- 
rence, could  be  used ;  and  likewise  a  rime-pair  irzelitun  : 
thingotiin  (V  23,  237),  where  sprdchun  would  express  the 
same  idea  as  the  first  rime  word.  In  all  these  cases  the  sub- 
stitutes seem  to  be  avoided  intentionally. 

As  a  final  group  may  be  mentioned  the  adjectives  ziari  and 
sconi,  meaning  "  beautiful."  In  some  one  of  its  inflectional 
forms  sconi  occurs  9  times  in  rime  where  some  form  of  ziari 
would  also  be  in  place:  sconi:  gisiuni  (I  4.  24),  sconi:  ana- 
wdni  (I  4.  48),  sconi :zvdni  (II  7.  49),  scone:  suene  (V  7.  13; 
V  18.  2;  V  20.  9),  sconaz:  seltsdnas  (V  23.  175),  scones: 
gisiunes  (I  12.  32),  scdniu:inddnin  (II  6.  19).  The  adverb 
scono  similarly  stands  in  rime  with  sino  (IV  7.  81),  where  the 
adverb  ciaro  would  have  violated  the  regular  rule. 

Many  other  synonyms  might  be  quoted  to  illustrate  the  point 
in  question,  and  in  all  these  Otfrid's  effort  to  secure  identity 
of  the  final  syllable  can  be  clearly  shown,  so  that  the  predomi- 
nance of  these  rimes  cannot  be  due  to  mere  accident,  but  must 
be  the  result  of  a  consistent  plan. 


THE   ULTIMA  13 

It  remains  to  discuss  classes  II  and  III,  which  contain  to- 
gether 826  examples,  and  are,  therefore,  much  smaller  in 
number  than  the  preceding,  the  ratio  being  nearly  5:  I. 

In  the  first  of  these  classes  the  initial  consonants  of  the  final 
syllables,  though  not  identical,  are  similar.  This  class  in- 
cludes 428  rimes,  that  is  over  one-half  of  the  cases  in  which 
the  final  syllable  is  not  identical.  Here  are  to  be  classed  first 
of  all  the  rimes  of  the  nasals  and  liquids  with  each  other,  such 
as  r'uiic  :  ciiciie,  sconi :  zvari,  etc. 

The  similarity  of  n,  I  r,  and  m  to  each  other  as  well  as  the 
frequency  with  which  they  rime,  the  one  wath  the  other,  proves 
that  Otfrid  sought  such  rimes,  wherever  he  could  not  secure 
identity  of  the  final  syllable. 

The  statistic  is  as  follows : 

Examples 
/:w=i04  gimeinit  : gideilit 

I  -^^^1=      5  ar77ie  :  wolle 

/  :  ;-   =    36  zioro  :  stuolo 


n  \r  —    40 


sconi  :  wan 


7n:r  =    21  gizami -wan 


VI  \n  '=■    29 


armon  '■  /lornon 


Total,     235 


Noticeable  is  the  frequency  of  the  rimes  of  l:n  and  the 
rarity  with  which  Otfrid  joins  /  and  vi  in  rime.  The  con- 
sonants occur  in  rime  in  the  following  order:  n  173  times; 
/  145 ;  r  97 ;  w  55.  By  comparing  these  numbers  with  those 
given  above  of  the  rimes  of  the  various  consonants  with  each 
other,  we  may  see  how  often  we  should  expect  certain  con- 
sonants to  rime  together ;  then  by  a  comparison  of  this  latter 
result  with  the  number  of  rimes  actually  found,  we  can  judge 
which,  among  the  nasals  and  liquids,  were  regarded  as  most 
similar  for  rime  purposes. 

Thus,  77  rimes  oil :  n  are  expected  where  104  actually  occur, 
but  where  we  should  expect  45  of  ^  •  ^  ^^^  27  of  / :  m,  only  36 
and  5  respectively  are  found. 

If  this  method  be  carried  out  for  each  consonant  we  arrive 


14  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID 

at  a  result  for  their  similarity  which  may  be  represented  by 

I  11  f  I'll/ 
the  two  lines  \    '  ,'   '        y,  that  is  to  sav,  startinsr  from  /  in 

n,  I,  m,  r  . '  & 

the  upper  line  and  proceeding  to  the  right  are  given,  in  order 
of  similarity  to  it,  the  other  consonants ;  then  with  m  as  start- 
ing point  and  advancing  to  the  left,  the  same  is  true,  and  also 
in  the  case  of  n  and  r  in  the  second  line.  The  results  obtained 
show  that  /  and  n  are  most  similar  to  each  other,  and  r  and  m, 
for  purposes  of  rime. 

Beside  the  above  consonants  there  are  rimes  of  other  similar 
consonants  which  require  some  discussion,  namely  ng(n):n, 
and  d :  n. 

The  following  considerations  justify  us  in  assuming  the 
existence  and  intentional  character  of  rime  of  the  guttural 
nasal  and  dental  nasal  in  final  syllables,  as  in  bigmnan:  sijigan: 

I.  Their  similarity  as  nasal  consonants. 

II.  The  frequency  of  rimes  of  ng :  n,  for  of  the  109  rimes  of 
ng  with  other  consonants  69,  i.  e.  64%  per  cent  of  the  total 
number,  are  with  n. 

III.  Excluding  the  rimes  of  ng :  n,  the  other  rimes  of  ng 
are  with  consonants^  that  are  similar  to  n  (nasals,  liquids,  and 
d)  and  joined  in  rime  with  it  frequently.  That  is  to  say,  83^ 
per  cent  of  the  rimes  of  ng  with  other  consonants  are  with  n 
or  consonants  similar  to  n,  a  proportion  that,  taken  in  connec- 
tion with  other  proof  cited  above,  tends  to  show  that  the  riming 
of  ng  with  n  in  final  syllables  is  intentional. 

It  may  be  objected  that  if  rime  of  ng  with  n  is  assumed,  we 
must  also  admit  that  of  g  with  n,  because  of  its  frequency,  as 
it  occurs  65  times  to  69  instances  of  ng :  n,  but  a  study  of  the 
former  shows  that  they  are  clearly  due  to  chance  and  are  in  no 
way  intentional.     As  proof  the  following  may  be  adduced : 

I.  g  and  n  are  dissimilar  consonants,  whereas  ng  and  n  are 
of  like  nature. 

II.  The  proportion  of  ng  rimes  with  n  is  greater  than  that 
of  g :  n,  for  while  out  of  a  total  of  109  rimes  of  ng  69  are  with 
n,  i.  e.  63.3  per  cent,  of  a  total  of  144  rimes  of  g  only  65,  or 

^  The  only  exceptions  are  ng:  g:=  14  (cf.  Refrain  in  V  19  which  con- 
tains 5  rimes  of  tJiingon:  mennisgon),  ng:t=^i,  and  ng:b=zi. 


THE    ULTIMA  1 5 

45.1  per  cent  are  with  n,  so  that  there  is  a  difference  of  18.2 
per  cent. 

III.  From  a  classification  of  the  g :  n  rimes  it  can  be  seen 
that  52  out  of  the  total  65  are  such  as  come  under  the  head  of 
three-syllable  or  antepenultimate  rime,  as  ingegini:  rnenigl;  but 
of  the  rimes  with  ;/<,'■ :  ;;  only  5  are  of  this  character,  the 
remainder  belonging  to  the  type  thztnnge:  iiuic.  This  fact  is 
significant,  for  in  antepenultimate  rime  there  is  not  only  an 
effort  to  secure  rime  of  the  penult,  but  also  of  the  antepenult, 
hence  the  number  of  words  where  this  amount  of  agreement 
is  found  must  of  necessity  be  more  restricted  than  in  penulti- 
mate rime,  and  we  therefore  find  the  same  rime-pairs  repeated 
again  and  again,  or  one  word  occurring  a  number  of  times  in 
different  combinations.  Thus,  ingegini:  menigi  is  found  26 
times,  nearly  one-half  the  total  number  of  rimes  of  n :  g;  simi- 
larily,  menigi:  githigini,  4  times,  and  hrcdigdn:redindn,  6 
times.  Besides,  in  the  effort  to  rime  both  penult  and  ante- 
penult there  is  less  opportunity  of  making  the  initial  consonant 
of  the  final  syllable  identical  or  similar ;  and  in  a  rime  in  which 
the  first  two  syllables  rime  and  the  initial  consonant  of  the 
ultima  does  not,  the  absence  of  agreement  in  the  latter  would 
not  be  felt  as  keenly  as  in  the  case  of  penultimate  rime. 

IV.  n  occurs  as  the  initial  consonant  of  the  final  syllable  in 
antepenultimate  rimes  102  times  in  all,  i.  e.  more  often  than 
any  other  consonant,  g  coming  second  ^  with  64  instances.  It 
is  therefore  the  most  natural  state  of  affairs  to  find  these  two 
consonants  riming  so  often  with  each  other,  as  it  is  merely  a 
question  of  frequency  of  use.  There  is  accordingly  no  reason 
for  assuming  intention  in  the  numerous  rimes  of  11 :  g. 

At  this  point  the  question  presents  itself  what  was  the  pro- 
nunciation of  ng  as  evidenced  by  Otfrid's  rimes  ?  ng  is  found 
in  rime  with  other  consonants  a  total  of  109  times,  70  of  which, 
or  62^2  per  cent,  are  rimes  with  double  consonants ;  that  is, 
there  are  60  rimes  with  )in,  as  higinnan:  singan,  and  10  with  //, 
as  zellen :  thin  gen.  So  large  a  proportion  of  the  rimes  of  ng 
being  with  double  consonants  leads  one  to  the  point  of  view  that 

^  r  occupies  third  place  with  31,  and  /  fourth,  with  27  rimes,  which 
serves  to  show  the  much  greater  frequency  of  n  and  g  in  this  class  of 
rimes. 


l6  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID 

ng  itself  was  a  geminate,  i.  e.  a  single  sound  as  in  modern  Ger- 
man, but  pronounced  long  and  divided  between  the  two  syl- 
lables as  in  the  case  of  the  Old  High  German  geminates. 

Graphically,  this  may  be  represented  as  follows :  bigin-nan : 
sin-nan  (singan),  thus  affording  a  satisfactory  explanation 
for  the  frequent  riming  of  ng  with  a  double  consonant/ 

As  to  the  rimes  of  n  with  d,  the  following  considerations 
will  serve  to  show  that  they  too  were  regarded  by  Otfrid  as 
similar,  and  as  such  joined  in  rime : 

1.  As  voiced  dental  consonants  d  and  n  are  similar. 
II.  They  occur  frequently  in  rime  together,  a  total  of  65 
times. 

III.  It  can  be  proved  that  such  rimes  are  intentional.  Let 
us  examine,  for  instance,  with  the  aid  of  Ingenbleek "  the  rimes 
in  -an,  which  constitutes  one  of  the  most  frequent  rime 
endings. 

It  is  found  that  there  are  19  cases  of  -dan  in  suffix  rime,  of 
which  8  are  identical  rimes  (i.  e.  -dan:  -dan)  ;  thus  leaving  11 
instances  of  rime  with  other  consonants.  Now,  of  these  ii, 
7,  or  nearly  64  per  cent,  are  rimes  of  -dan :  -nan.  If  we  exam- 
ine the  other  rimes  in  -an,  as  for  example,  those  in  -tan,  -gan, 
-ban,  etc.,  we  find  them  well  represented,  and  in  some  cases 
occurring  as  often  as  the  -nan  rimes.  Therefore,  if  the  rimes 
of  -dan  :  -nan  are  merely  accidental,  and  not  intentional,  we 
expect  to  find  -dan  riming  as  freely,  or  nearly  so,  with  other 
consonants  as  with  -nan.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  no  other  con- 
sonant appears  a  reasonable  number  of  times  in  rime  with  -dan 
as  compared  with  the  rimes  of  -nan :  -dan,  so  we  are  justified 
in  asserting  that  -dan  and  -nan  are  intentionally  associated. 

If,  in  like  manner,  we  survey  the  rimes  in  -on  we  find  30 
cases  of  -don  in  suffix  rime,  of  which  12  are  identical,  leaving 
18  instances  of  rime  with  other  consonants.  Of  this  number, 
10,  or  about  56  per  cent,  are  rimes  of  -don :  -non,  so  that  there 

^  Panzer  in  Gudrun,  p.  20,  Note  i,  arrives  at  this  same  conclusion  for 
the  Gudrun,  because  of  the  numerous  rimes  of  nning.  His  statement 
is  as  follows :  "  Gem.  dent.  cons. :  gem.  gutt.  cons.  Diese  Aussprache 
muss  die  Lautgruppe  ng  nach  Ausweis  eben  dieser  Reime  bereits  gehabt 
haben." 

'  Reimlexikon  zu  Otfrid,  QuR,  XXXVII,  47  f- 


THE   ULTIMA  1 7 

remains  8  cases  of  -don  in  rime  with  other  consonants.  Of 
other  rimes  in  -on  those  in  -ton,  -ron,  -gon,  and  -Ion  are  fre- 
quent, and  we  ask  ag'ain  if  chance  ruled  why  should  not  the  pro- 
portion of  rimes  of  -don  with  other  consonants  approach  more 
closely  that  of  -non\-do)i?  The  highest  number  of  rimes  of 
-don  with  any  other  combination  than  -non  is  3,  viz.,  that  of 
-don  :  -gon.  That  is  to  say,  out  of  the  35  times  that  -gon 
appears  in  rime  with  other  consonants  only  one-twelfth  are 
-gon  :  -don.  Upon  comparing  this  with  the  rimes  of  -non :  -don 
it  will  be  seen  that  of  the  50  rimes  of  -noii  with  other  con- 
sonants, 10,  or  one-fifth,  are  rimes  of  -non :  don,  showing,  there- 
fore, more  than  twice  as  large  a  proportion  in  the  latter  case. 
The  question  may  be  asked,  how  is  it  that  of  50  rimes  of 
-}W)i  only  10  are  w^ith  -don,  and  should  we  not  expect  a  greater 
percentage?  What  are  the  remaining  40  rimes  of  -nonf  26 
are  rimes  of  -non  with  other  nasals  and  liquids — 10  are  with  I, 
10  with  r,  and  6  with  /// — so  that  the  proportion  of  the  -non: 
-don  rimes  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  nasals  and  liquids,  which, 
as  we  have  already  shown,  Otfrid  felt  as  similar.  Hence,  we 
may  conclude  that  n  and  d  must  likewise  have  been  regarded 
as  similar  consonants  for  rime  purposes. 

It  would  be  possible  to  go  through  various  other  rime 
endings,  such  as  those  in  -es,  -a,  etc.,  and  wx  should  find  that 
the  rimes  of  d :  n  occur  in  much  larger  proportion  than  those 
of  other  consonants  with  d,  even  though  the  former  were  met 
with  often  in  rime  and  might,  therefore,  be  expected  to  occur 
as  frequently  as  n  in  rime  with  d,  or  in  the  proper  ratio,  were 
these  rimes  merely  accidental.  As  this  has  been  shown  not  to 
be  the  case,  we  may  regard  the  point  in  question  as  proved. 

In  about  nine-tenths  of  these  rimes  of  d :  n  there  is  also  rime 
of  the  penult.  Cf.  blide:  sJne,  and  Koegel,^  in  classifying  such 
rimes  states  under  his  fourth  division :  "  Der  Vokal  der  vor- 
hergehenden  (i.  e.  penultimate)  Silbe  wnrd  hereingezogen, 
zunachst  ohne  BeriAcksichtigung  der  zwischenstehenden  Con- 
sonanz."  The  above  discussion  of  the  rimes  of  our  entire 
second  class  has  shown  this  point  of  view  to  be  incorrect,  and 
serves  to  confirm  Paul's  opinion,"  which  is  as  follows : 

^  Deutsche  Litteraturgeschichte  I,  2,  25  f. 
'PGr.MI.  2,  109. 


l8  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID 

"  Sobald  iibrigens  diese  Konsonanten  (i.  e.  initial  consonants 
of  the  final  syllables)  einander  wenigstens  ahnlich  sind,  tragen 
sie  doch  zu  scharferem  Hervortreten  des  Reimes  bei,  und  es 
zeigt  sich  daher  auch,  dass  diese  Aehnlichkeit  in  den  meisten 
Fallen  vorhanden  ist,  also  erstrebt  sein  muss." 

As  regards  our  third  class,  in  which  the  initial  consonant  of 
the  final  syllable  is  neither  identical  nor  similar,  as  in  such 
rimes  as  hdhi:dati,  hredigii:redinii,  no  special  comment  is 
called  for.  In  passing  we  may  note  that  it  is  the  smallest  of 
our  three  divisions,  being  represented  by  only  398  rimes, 
another  evidence  of  Otfrid's  careful  regard  for  the  ultimate 
syllable. 

Penultimate  Rime 

Up  to  this  point  we  have  examined  mainly  the  final  syllable ; 
we  are  now  ready  for  a  consideration  of  rime  extending  over 
two  syllables,  that  is  penultimate  rime. 

Accurate  rimes  of  the  above  class,  such  as  henti:enti  are 
found  in  extensive  use  in  Otfrid,  and  may  be  divided  according 
to  accent  ^  into  the  following  categories : 

I.  Both  words  have  primary  accent  on  the  penulti- 
mate syllable.  This  comprises  the  rime  of  stem  with 
stem.^     Cf.  frond:  scbno  =  1631 

II.  One  penult  has  primary,  the  other  secondary 
accent. 

(a)   Stem :  stem,  one  word  being  compound.     Cf. 
wihuii :  adal-kunm  =     233 

{/3)   Stem  :  suffix  syllable.     Ci.  minna'.  drfitinna     =     117 

III.  Both  penults  have  secondary  accent. 

(a)   Compound  :  compound.      Cf.     itmhi-therhi  : 
adal-erbl  =         6 

(/?)   Compound  :  suffix   syllable.     Cf.   chan-re\ti : 
drabeitl  =         q 


Total,  1992 

^  Cf.  for  accent  of  words  in  rime  position :  PGr.,  2,  919 ;  Sievers, 
PBBtr.,  4,  525  f. :  13.  121  f . ;  Wihnanns,  ZfdA..  16.  117  f . :  27,  105  f . ; 
Beitrage  zur  alteren  deutschen  Litteratur,  Heft  3,  pp.  1-129;  Trautmann, 
Lachmann's  Betonungsgesetze  und  Otfrid's  Vers,  Halle,  1877 ;  Behaghel, 
Gesch.  d.  deu.  Sprache.  p.  689. 

"  For   such    rimes    as   sagcti :  hdbcti   compare    Antepenultimate    Rime. 


PENULTIMATE  RIME  19 

Combining  the  examples  found  in  these  three  divisions,  there 
is  a  total  of  1992  instances,  or  27.7  per  cent  of  Otfrid's  rimes 
are  to  be  classed  under  the  rubric  of  accurate  penultimate  rime, 
verv  little  less  than  the  rime  of  root  syllables  with  each  other, 
this  being  29.2  per  cent. 

Considering  suffix  rime  alone,  accurate  penultimate  rime 
forms  about  39  per  cent  thereof,  and  as  Books  I  and  V  contain 
the  "-reatest  amount  of  the  former,  there  is  more  chance  for 
accurate  penultimate  rime  in  them  than  in  the  remaining 
books ;  we  should,  therefore,  expect  them  to  show  a  larger 
percentage  than  that  found  elsewhere.  In  the  table  given  be- 
low the  third  and  fourth  lines  represent  the  amount  of  suffix 
rime  included  under  accurate  penultimate  rime. 


I 

II 

III 

IV 

V               Total 

Suffix  rime 

971 

861 

1084 

1109 

1066        _  5091 

78.2% 

69.2% 

68.8% 

70.6% 

72.4%           71.7% 

Ace.  pen.  rime 

332 

347 

432 

418 

463        =  1992 

34-3% 

40.2% 

39.8% 

37.7% 

43-4%     —      39% 

The  above  tabulation  shows  that  I  contains  5.8  per  cent  more 
suffix  rime  than  any  of  the  other  books ;  it  should,  therefore, 
comprise  more  accurate  penultimate  rime,  but  our  enumeration 
above  shows  that  it  includes  even  less,  by  3.4  per  cent,  than 
any  other  book,  whereas  V  shows  approximately  the  expected 
proportion.  It  will  be  necessary  to  note,  in  the  succeeding 
categories,  any  increase  above  the  normal  ratio  on  the  part  of  I, 
in  order  to  see  in  what  class  or  classes  of  rimes  its  greater 
percentage  makes  its  appearance. 

At  this  point  we  may  consider  the  question  of  rime  on  the 
part  of  the  inseparable  prefixes  gi,  hi,  and  ir,  as  in  giddti :  girdti, 
bir'uiif :  biscinit,  invellen:  ir^elloi.  Grimm  ^  speaks  of  these 
under  the  heading  of  ''  Erweiterter  Reim  "  as  follows : 

''  Haufig  reimen  unter  sich  die  zu  einem  Endreim  gehorigen 
untrennbaren  Partikeln :  da  sie  aber  niemals  betont,  vielmehr 
wenn  sie  zur  Senkung  an  dieser  Silbe  nicht  dienen,  ganz 
verschluckt  werden,  so  kann  man  nur  eine  leichte  Zuthat  zu 
dem  Reim  darin  erblicken." 

^Kleinere  Schriften  4,  214  f. 


20  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OFF  RID 

He  believes,  therefore,  that  such  prefixes,  when  found  to- 
gether, serve  as  a  sHght  addition  to  the  rime,  and  that  their 
agreement  was  aimed  at. 

Paul  ^  denies  all  such  intention,  holding  this  agreement  to  be 
merely  accidental,  and  of  little  importance.  This  latter  is  prob- 
ably the  correct  view  as  far  as  the  prefixes  ir  and  hi  are  con- 
cerned, for  as  such  rimes  as  birinit :  hiscinit,  irwellen :  irzellen, 
occur  only  8  or  lo  times  in  each  case  in  the  entire  poem,  the 
probability  that  the  identity  is  merely  accidental  is  so  great 
that  no  intention  can  be  asserted,  especially  as  both  prefixes 
occur  frequently  in  rime  in  other  combinations.  With  the 
prefix  gi,  however,  we  have  a  different  state  of  affairs : 

I.  Rimes  like  girati :  giddti  are  numerous,  there  being  a 
total "  of  96. 

II.  The  type  of  gi- :  gi-  appears  in  all  three  types  of  rimes, 
whether  it  be  (a)  root  syllable  rime,  as  gisah :  gimah,  (b)  pe- 
nultimate rime,  as  ginnagi:  giwuagi,  or  (c)  antepenultimate,  as 
githrewita :  gistrewita;  whereas,  the  few  identical  rimes  of  hi 
and  ir  are  all  found  in  penultimate  rime. 

III.  From  a  consideration  of  some  of  the  rimes  in  which  gi 
figures  it  would  seem  as  though  Otfrid  consciously  chose  in 
the  one  case  a  form  in  gi  when  another  form  without  it  was  at 
hand  and  would  have  apparently  served  the  purpose  as  well. 

Let  us  look,  for  instance,  at  the  rime  gisah:  gi  in  ah  which 
appears  9  times  (I  8.  2 ;  I  9.  32 ;  II  6.  49 ;  9.  59 ;  III  20.  28; 
104 ;  147  ;  V  8.  19 ;  12.  46) . 

The  form  of  gimah  must  remain  invariable,  but  instead  of 
gisah  the  simple  form  sah  might  have  been  used  without  sub- 
stantially changing  the  meaning  of  the  line.  That  sah  :  gimah 
never  occurs  seems  to  point  to  the  fact  that  the  poet  employed 
the  compound  verb  in  order  to  effect  rime  of  the  prefix  in  addi- 
tion to  that  of  the  root  syllable. 

Likewise,  the  adverbial  phrase  in  girihti,  which  appears  12 
times  in  rime,  stands  in  5  cases  rimed  with  forms  in  gi.     Three 

^  PGr.-  II,  2,  109. 

^The  rime  of  past  part. :  past  part,  is  excluded  from  consideration, 
as  gi  would  naturally  occur  here  in  both  words,  and  fall  under  the 
head  of  rime-parallelism.  Cf.  Vos,  Rime-parallelism  in  O.  H.  G.  verse, 
Studies   in  honor  of  B,   L.   Gildersleeve,   Baltimore,   1901. 


PENULTIMATE  RIME  21 

of  these  are  with  gisiJiti  (III  26.  58;  IV  i.  54;  V  23.  177),  one 
with  gikiiiJiti  (IV  8.  22),  and  one  with  the  verb  gisliJitl  (IV 
4.  34),  of  which  the  uncompounded  form  does  not  occur  in 
Otfrid.  There  is  also  a  phrase  iji  riJiti  which,  as  Piper  ^  justly 
observes,  has  precisely  the  meaning  of  in  giriJiti,  i.  e.  "  straight- 
way," and  if  the  correspondence  of  the  gi  forms  is  not  aimed 
at,  why  do  we  not  have  this  in  riJit'i  riming  with  the  above 
words  instead  of  in  girihti? 

The  adjective  ginuagi,  in  one  or  the  other  of  its  inflectional 
forms  appears  3  times  in  rime  with  the  verb  gifuagen.  The 
latter  has  an  uncompounded  form  fnagen  of  like  meaning, 
which  is  rejected  here  seemingly  to  bring  the  agreement  of 
the  prefixes  into  play.  These  3  rimes  are  found  in  III  14.  71  ; 
V  12.  68;  V  25.  90. 

So,  too,  in  case  of  the  rime  ginuagi:  gifiangi  (III  16.  74), 
there  exists  the  simple  form  of  the  verb  Hangi,  but  again  we 
have  the  compound  form  apparently  for  the  reason  above 
given.^ 

The  adjective  ginuag  appears  in  rime  10  times ;  8  of  these 
are  with  ginniag  (pret.  sg.  of  giwahan).  Here,  too,  the  agree- 
ment seems  to  be  sought  for,  in  addition  to  the  rime  of  the 
accented  syllable,  for  although  the  number  of  rimes  in  -uag 
is  only  38,  still  the  percentage  of  rimes  of  ginuag  with  giwuag 
is  greater  than  one  would  expect,  even  though  they  are  the  two 
most  frequent  rime  words  of  the  above  ending.^ 

Whenever,  therefore,  we  find  both  riming  words  of  a  couplet 
compounded  with  the  prefix  gi-,  we  are  justified  in  assuming 
that  its  presence  is  intentional,*  and  that  it  serves  as  a  slight 
addition  to  the  rime  of  the  accented  syllable  or  syllables. 

^  Otfrid's  Evangelienbuch,  II.  Theil,  Glossar  und  Abriss  der  Gram- 
matik. 

^  The  majority  of  the  rimes  of  this  type  are  of  verbs,  such  as  gihaltan 
:  giwaltan,  that  exist  in  both  simple  and  compound  form,  or  both 
rime  words  are  such  as  have  only  the  gi  forms,  as  gimurt :  giburt,  in 
which   case  nothing  can   be   proved   from   them. 

^  The  statistic  is  as  follows:  Total  number  of  rimes  in  -uag^^S; 
ginuag  =  10;  giwuag  =  16;  other  words  in  -uag  ^  12. 

*  From  an  examination  of  the  verbs  and  passages  in  question  it  does 
not  appear  that  the  use  of  the  gi-  is  in  these  cases  due  to  any 
special    perfective    function. 


22  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID 

This  conclusion  would  seem  to  indicate  that  Otfrid's  atti- 
tude was :  the  more  agreement,  the  more  rime,  and  this  will 
have  to  be  borne  in  mind  in  the  discussion  that  is  to  follow. 

Turning  now  to  the  consideration  of  inaccurate  penultimate 
rime  we  may  make  3  main  divisions : 

I.  The  vowels  or  diphthongs  of  the  penult  are  identical,  but 
there  is  some  consonantal  inaccuracy.  Cf .  guatun :  stuantun, 
waltan :  stantan. 

II.  The  penultimate  vowels  or  diphthongs  are  not  wholly 
identical,  but  contain  some  element  of  identity,  with  occasion- 
ally an  inaccuracy  in  the  consonant.  Cf.  guate :  drute;  liuti : 
riati;  thurfti :  ruafti. 

III.  The  penultimate  vowels  or  diphthongs  are  different. 
Cf.  harto  :  zvorto;  wuntar:  altar;  ziti:  noti. 

Class  I  may  be  divided  into  the  following  two  subdivisions : 

A.  One  penult  ends  in  a  consonant,  the  other  in  a  vowel  or 
diphthong. 

B.  The  penults  end  in  consonants  that  are  not  identical,  but 
are  either  (a)  similar,  or  (b)  dissimilar. 

As  examples  under  A  may  be  cited  such  rimes  as  riatun: 
giziartun;  gimeinti:  chuanheiti;  giiatim:  stuantun.  This  is  not 
a  large  category ;  it  contains  97  rimes,  which  occur  in  the 
various  books  as  follows : 

I  II  III  IV  V  Total 

16  23  19  22  17  97 

1.6%  2.7%  1.8%  1.9%  1.5%  1.9% 

As  the  above  percentages  show,  the  ratio  between  the  books 
is  not  far  from  normal,  though  I  and  V  should  show  a  higher 
percentage — particularly  the  former — as  they  contain  the 
largest  amount  of  suffix  rime. 

The  most  noteworthy  feature  of  this  class  of  rimes  is  that 
in  two-thirds  of  them  the  extra  consonant  is  either  a  nasal  or 
liquid,  r  and  n  being  especially  common,  the  former  occurring 
26,  the  latter  22  times.^  The  reason  for  this  predominance  of 
nasal  and  liquid  is  to  be  sought  in  the  fact  that  they,  as  the 

^  The  others  are  I,  12 ;  m,  i ;  of  consonants  that  are  not  nasals  or 
liquids  are  found:    t,y',  h,  6;  and  others  occurring  only  once  each. 


PENULTIMATE  RIME 

most  sonorous  consonants,  would  blend  with,  and  offer  least 
hindrance  to,  the  rime  of  the  vowels.  This  consideration  seems 
to  have  influenced  Otfrid  in  his  selection  of  rime  w'ords,  for 
there  is  a  tendency  to  restrict  these  latter  to  certain  rime 
groups  where  the  consonants  in  question  appear.  Cf.  horti: 
noti  (II  5.  19;  III  17.  30;  IV  13.  52;  IV  24.  2);  gihorfa: 
zverncta  (III  20.  169),  and  hortun:  rcdinotun  (III  12.  9); 
guati-.siuanti  (II  2.  10;  III  13.  58;  15.  21  ;  IV  15.  56;  IV  30. 
12;  2)^^.  13)  :  b'lta-.'ilta  (III  24.  40;  V  7.  56.  65),  and  b'ltiin: 
'iltun  (V  4.  10;  5.  4);  'iltl:  z'lti  (I  22.  2;  V  4.  11;  16.  7); 
fuarta:  guata  (I  15.  11;  II  4.  51).  Other  instances  might  be 
given :  they  would  all  serve  to  show  an  effort  to  secure  a  sonor- 
ous consonant  for  the  one  penult,  as  least  disturbing  the  vocalic 
agreement  or  rime. 

Other  rimes  that  may  also  be  mentioned  here  are  those  in 
which  the  initial  consonants  of  the  penults  are  identical.  In  a 
subsequent  discussion  the  attempt  will  be  made  to  show  that  this 
identity  was  sought  for,  as  an  additional  element  of  rime  in 
the  penultimate  syllable.  Those  to  be  classed  under  I  A  are : 
m'lnii  \  urminnu  (I  4.  50)  ;  abahofun:  gihorfun  (III  19.  19;  24. 
no)  ;  gieiscofa:  scolfa  (IV  3.  20)  ;  bibiiiota:  notta  (IV  34.  i). 

Subdivision  B  of  Class  I  consists  of  such  rimes  as  zvaltan : 
stantan :  thulti :  zviirti ;  Iciffa:  irdeilfa,  etc.  It  exceeds  the  pre- 
ceding class  in  frequency,  comprising  a  total  of  158  rimes, 
which  are  divided  as  follows,  under  the  groups  (a)  and  (b), 
as  mentioned  on  page  22 : 

I  II  III  IV  V  Total 

(a)  24  20  3S  28  22  =  129 

(b)  10  8  2  5  4  =29 
Total  34                28                37                33                26  =158 

34%  3-1%  34%  3%  24%  =    3-1% 

Book  I  approaches  here  more  closely  to  the  percentage  we 
should  expect  from  the  amount  of  its  suffix  rime,  than  in  A, 
but  \',  contrary  to  our  expectations,  shows  the  fewest  in- 
stances of  all. 

Another  peculiarity  of  this  class  consists  in  the  frequency 
with  which  tlie  penult  ends  in  a  nasal  or  liquid.  All  the  rimes 
of  subdivision  (a)  come  under  this  head  and  in  only  29  rimes, 


24  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OFF  RID 

therefore,  of  the  entire  158  are  consonants  other  than  these 
used,  10  of  these  being  found  in  Book  I.  In  such  rimes  as 
warten :  halten  we  may  accordingly  assume  intention  to  rime 
not  only  the  penultimate  vowels  but  also  the  consonants,  in 
this  case  r  and  /,  ending  this  syllable.  That  is  to  say,  we  have 
a  state  of  things  similar  to  that  already  discussed  in  the  rime 
of  final  syllables.  In  the  latter  case,  when  not  identical,  the 
initial  consonants  of  these  syllables  are  usually  similar,  the 
riming  of  nasals  and  liquids  with  one  another,  as  in  scdni :  wdi'i, 
being  very  frequent.  In  the  present  instance,  when  we  do  not 
get  an  accurate  penultimate  rime,  such  as  Jienti :  enti,  there  is 
an  effort  to  introduce  such  rimes  as  zvarten :  halten,  where  the 
penultimate  consonants  are  similar  and  where  their  sonorous 
quality  actually  becomes  a  feature  of  the  rime,  instead  of  hm- 
dering  it  as  other  voiceless  dissimilar  consonants  would  do. 
Rimes  of  / :  71  are  especially  numerous,  appearing  63  times ; 
/ :  r  shows  37  instances.  No  rime  of  / :  in  is  found  in  this 
class ;  the  others  ^  are :  n  :r,  18 ;  n :  m,  10 ;  r :  m,  2.  The  order 
of  frequency  of  these  consonants  in  rime  is :  I,  100  times ;  n, 
91  ;  ^^  57 ;  w,  12.  Here  the  condition  of  affairs  is  very  similar 
to  the  statistic  given  under  the  Ultima?  That  is  to  say,  /  and 
n  seem  to  be  regarded  as  most  similar,  /  and  r  next,  and  /  and 
m  least  similar  of  all.  The  only  difference  in  the  present  case 
is  that  10  of  the  12  rimes  of  ni  are  with  n  where  we  should 
expect,  proportional  to  the  total  number  of  n  rimes,  only  6. 
This,  therefore,  points  to  m  and  n  as  the  most  similar  of  all 
the  nasals  and  liquids ;  whereas,  in  the  class  referred  to  above, 
the  statistic  showed  m  and  r  to  be  the  most  common  combina- 
tion, m  and  n,  however,  being  a  very  close  second. 

In  this  division  we  may  also  observe  the  tendency  toward 
riming  certain  words  together  so  often  that  they  may,  in  so 
far  as  the  stem  of  the  word  is  concerned,  be  said  to  form  tvpi- 
cal  rime  pairs.  As  examples  of  such  typical  rimes  of  l:n  the 
following  may  be  mentioned : 

I.  Some  inflectional  form  of  gimeinen '.soxnt  form  of  deilen 
(vb.)  \  gimeinta :  (ir)dcilta  (II  i.  33;  III  6.  41 ;  IV  7.  71 ;  19. 

*  To  these  must,  of  course,  be  added  the  29  referred  to  on  p.  23. 
^  P.  14. 


PENULTIMATE  RIME  25 

69)  ;  gimcintnn'.irdciltun  (IV  6.  15)  ;  gimciutT:  irdcUtl  (II  12. 
78)  ;  ginicintur.gidciltln  (IV  28.  4).  Other  rimes  from  these 
same  stems,  which  may  be  noticed  here,  aUhough  they  do  not 
belong  to  this  class,  as  the  penult  does  not  end  in  a  consonant, 
are:  ginicinc  (vh.)  :  dcilc  (II  13-  3^ ;  V  20.  64);  gimeinit: 
irdcilit  (II  9.  20 ;  III  18.  20 ;  II  12.  84)  ;  gimeini  (adj.)  :  urdcili 
(noun.)  (Ill  16.  46;  V  20.  2).  These  rimes  are  mentioned 
in  passing  in  order  to  show  that  it  is  not  merely  inflectional 
forms  that  Otfrid  associates,  but  the  words  themselves. 

2.  Some  form  of  gimeinen  :  some  form  of  heileri — gimeinta: 
hcilfa  (II  24.  9;  III  4.  37;  14.  54:  16.  34;  IV  2.  I.  26;  12.  15)  ; 
gimcintl-.hciln  (III  2.  6;  3.  6;  11.  6.  12).' 

3.  gkveltiihenfi  (I  7.  13  ;  16.  28;  II  4.  85  ;  I3-  30 ;  IV  11.  8). 

4.  gizvelti :  e;z/t  (I  15.  37 ;  28.  6 ;  V  6.  60.  63  ;  25.  20.  102) . 

5.  zalta-.irkanta  (I  13.  23;  II  7-  62.  69;  12.  11),  and  others. 
Examples  of  n  :  r  are  not  so  numerous,  though  there  are  a 

number  occurring  twice.     Cf.  also  wurtiin  :  bifuntun   (I  8.  5  ; 

V  6.  26;  23.  281). 

Yov  n  \  m  zi.  stimna-.  mimia  (I9.  n  ;  HI  22.  22  ;  IV  33.  16  ;  V 
12.  57),  and  minnif.sfimnu  (III  13.  12;  IV  21.  34;  V  12.  94; 

20.  66). 

For  l:r  cf.  i.  thnlti \  antzmirti  (III  17.  38;  18.  37;  22.  35; 
IV  19.  41;  23.  34;  V  20.  81),  and  thidtiiwnrti  (III  19.  25; 

R'  10.  4;  15.  44). 

2.  Some  form  of  hclfan:  some  form  of  zi'erfair'—z^'crfet: 
gihelfet  (II  11.  33)  ;  hiHit :  nrzjuMt  (II  17.  8)  ;  o-//n///l// :  z^'urfm 
(III  18.  70)  ;  gihelfe-.iirzvcrfe  (III  4.  24;  17.  16). 

3.  Some  form  of  zvarteii :  some  form  of  haltan — zijartcn : 
haltcn  (I  29.  9 ;  II  4.  59)  ;  zvartes:  haltcs  (I  19.  12)  ;  giwartent : 
gihaltent  (II  19.  10). 

4.  /zar^o:  managfalto  (IV  9.  29.  32;  26.  25). 

While  this  does  not  by  any  means  exhaust  the  list  of  rime 
groups,  the  above  will  be  sufficient  to  show  to  how  large  an 
extent  they  occur,  and  the  explanation  of  their  frequency  is  at 
hand  ;  namely,  that  these  rimes  between  nasals  and  liquids  were 

^  Similarly  5  rimes  of  gimeini  (adj.)  :  hcili  (noun). 

-  The  rimes  of  hclfan  :  n'crfan  afford  an  interesting  illustration  of  how 
Otfrid  associates  the  words  themselves  together  and  not  merely  inflec- 
tional forms. 


26  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID 

regarded  as  good,  and  that  two  words  of  this  sort  having  once 
been  used  together  one  was  Hkely  to  call  forth  the  other 
whenever  afterwards  employed. 

There  are  7  rimes  belonging  under  this  category,  that  have 
the  initial  consonant  identical,  and  they  may  be  noted  here,  to 
bear  witness  later  on  to  the  fact  that  this  identity  was  sought 
for.  They  are :  gikundti :  kunfti  (I  23.  6 ;  IV  18.  34)  ;  gihelfe : 
irheffe  (II  17.  17)  ;  werkeiii-welke  (III  7.  67)  ;  eisconti:  scolti 
(III  15.  38)  ;  giliuhta:  inliiihta  (III  20.  146)  ;  intfuarta'.fiialta 

(IV  31- 34). 
This  completes  the  discussion  of  our  first  main  class  and 

brings  us  to  Class  II,  in  which  the  penultimate  vowel  or  diph- 
thong is  not  identical,  but  contains  some  element  of  identity, 
with  occasionally  a  consonantal  inaccuracy.  For  convenience 
we  may  further  separate  this  class  into  two  divisions : 

1.  The  vowel  of  one  penult  rimes  with  one  element  of  the 
diphthong  of  the  other  penult. 

a.  With  the  first  element  of  the  diphthong,  cf. 
liuti'.  zlti  =     30 

(3.  W^ith  the  second  element  of  the  diphthong,  cf. 
zvara :  fiara  =   122 

The  riming  of  the  vowel  is,  in  over  two-thirds  of  the  cases, 
with  the  second  part  of  the  diphthong.^ 

2.  One  element  of  one  diphthong  rimes  with  one  element  of 
the  other  diphthong. 

a.  The  first  element  rimes  with  the  first  element. 
Ci.  liuti  iriati  =z     ig 

(3.  The  first  element  rimes  with  the  second  ele- 
ment.    Cf.  liuti:  gimttati  =     32 

y.  The  second  element  rimes  with  the  second  ele- 
ment.   Cf.  Harta :  ruarta  =     29 

Total,  80 

^  There  is  nothing  surprising,  however,  in  this,  for  over  half  the  rimes 
under  3,  i.  e.  89.  are  of  a:  ua  (60)  or  a:ia  (29).  As  a  is  the  "  hellste 
Vokal  "  in  German  it  is  much  better  adapted  to  carrying  the  rime  than 
either  the  u  or  i  in  the  above  diphthongs ;  so  that  although  the  stress 
of  voice  is  upon  the  first  element  of  the  diphthong,  yet  the  second  ele- 
ment is  intrinsically  the  more  suitable  for  purposes  of  rime. 


PENULTIMATE  RIME 


27 


As  the  diphthongs  in  QUI  High  German  are  falHng  diph- 
thongs we  should  expect,  as  a  rule,  to  find  the  first,  or  most 
strongly  stressed,  parts  of  the  diphthongs  riming  together,  but 
from  a  glance  at  the  above  it  may  be  seen  that  this  is  the 
smallest  of  the  three  divisions. 

The  reason  for  the  so  frequent  appearance  of  sub-class  y  at 
least  will  be  clear  when  one  considers  that  19  of  its  29  rimes 
are  of  ua :  ia,  that  is,  rimes  in  which  the  second  components  of 
the  diphthongs  can  more  easily  carry  the  rime,  they  being 
more  sonorous  than  the  first  elements. 

It  would  appear,'  therefore,  from  categories  a  and  y  that 
sonority  of  the  vowel  is  of  more  importance  in  the  rime  of 
diphthongs  than  mere  stress,  but  it  is  a  more  difficult  task  to 
explain  why  fi  should  be  the  most  numerously  represented  of 
all  three  categories. 

A  consideration  of  two  points,  however,  will  serve  to  show 
that  rime  of  the  penult  w^as  undoubtedly  intended,  not  only  in 
regard  to  sub-class  ^,  but  in  all  examples  included  under  our 
main  division  II : 

A.  In  addition  to  the  vocalic  agreements,  the  initial  conson- 
ant of  the  penult  is  sometimes  identical.  These  cases  are : 
Under  i:  Tibcliebe  (IV  37.  14;  V  20.  45;  23.  55;  188); 
I'lbe-.liabe  (III  14.  8;  V  20.  39);  Tibes:Uobcs  (I  16.  20); 
wison :  weison  (I  18.  24;  IV  15.  47)  ;  luto\liiito  (IV  24.  13; 
IV  26.  5)  ;  luti'.liuti  (IV  33.  22)  ;  wari :  Hhiiwian  (III  4.  3)  ; 
sdzi:siia:;i  (IV  4.  16;  5.  30)  ;  gifarflu  :  fuartln  (IV  35.  25)  ; 
gimiiati:  mammunti  (V  23.  214). 

Under  2:  inliuhtc:  Halite  (I  12.  4)  ;  Hobo:  giloiibo  (III  2^. 
8 ;  IV  13.  28)  ;  leibfa :  liiibfa  (V  11.  43)  ;  Hiibi:  giloiibi  (V  7.  4 ; 
20.  44);  giliuben:  giloiiben  (I  26.  11;  III  26.  12);  liuti: 
giloiibti  (II  2.  9)  ;  liuti:  bnltloiifti  (III  8.  3). 

B.  We  have  again  certain  rime  groups  which  would  hardly 
continue  to  appear  with  such  regularity  were  the  rime  not  in- 
tended and  felt  in  these  cases  as,  at  least,  permissible.  Only 
a  few  will  be  cited.  Under  i  are:  zi'ari  (adj.  or  vb.)  :  (gi)fuari 
(noun  or  vb.),  5  ;  luara  (adj.)  :  fuara  (noun),  5  ;  zvani :  fuani, 
I ;  wann  (vb.)  :  fiiann  (vb.),  2;  wanin  (vb.)  :  fuaritn  (vb.),  5  ; 

^  Cf.  also  I  /3  and  note. 


21 

17 

36 

39 

26 

139 

12 

10 

i6 

i8 

12 

68 

3 

2 

3 

2 

3 

\ 

0 

5 

3 

4 

0 

|25 

28  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OFF  RID 

guati-.dati,  15;  liiiti  or  some  inflectional  form  thereof:  ziti  or 
some  form  thereof,  5  ;  hiare  :  thare,  3  ;  -flrliazi :  sdzi,  3. 

Of  those  under  2  may  be  mentioned,  according  to  frequency : 
gifiarta :  niarta,  6  :  //z/^/ :  gimuati,  4 ;  /in/// :  guati,  4 ;  /l^^ :  liehe, 
4;  loufti-.anaruafti,  3,  and  others. 

In  order  to  give  a  clear  idea  as  to  how  the  rimes  of  the  sub- 
classes I  and  2  are  divided  in  the  various  books,  a  statistic  of 
the  main  class  II  is  appended : 

I         II       III       IV        V      Total 
(i)   Vowel :  elem.  of  diph. 
(2)   Elem.  of  diph. :  elem.  of  diph.  12 
Extra  consonant  in        C      1. 
one  penult.  \      2. 

36        34        58        63        41        232 
3.6%    3.8%    5.2%    54%    3.7%      4.4% 

Here,  too,  we  do  not  get  the  larger  percentage  in  Books  I 
and  V  to  be  expected  from  the  larger  amount  of  their  suffix 
rime,  but  even  a  somewhat  less  frequent  use  than  elsewhere. 

In  stating  this  second  main  class,^  mention  was  made  of  an 
occasional  consonantal  inaccuracy  appearing  in  the  penult. 
As  seen  from  the  enumeration  above,  this  inaccuracy  takes 
the  form  of  an  extra  consonant  ^  in  one  penult,  as  in  ginuagi : 
giangi,  gimuati:  niammiinti,  etc.,  and  plays  only  a  minor  role, 
appearing  in  not  quite  one-ninth  of  the  total  number  of  ex- 
amples. Of  these  25  instances,  the  extra  consonant  is*  a  nasal 
or  liquid  in  four-fifths  of  the  cases,  thus  again  demonstrating 
the  preference  for  these. 

We  have  now  reached  our  third  main  category,  in  which  the 
penultimate  vowels  of  the  rime  words  are  dissimilar.  The  first 
question  that  presents  itself  is  whether  rime  vowels  may  be  dis- 
similar, and  yet  the  rime  of  the  penults  be  maintained.  Three 
subdivisions  of  this  class  may  be  distinguished : 

I.  The  penult  ends  in  a  vowel  or  diphthong. 
A.  The   initial   consonants   of  the  penults   are   identical; 

cf.  doti :  gidati, 

'  P.  22. 

'Most  frequently  r=zS,  or  n=8;/^4;no  case  of  m. 


PENULTIMATE  RIME  29 

B.  The  initial  consonants  of  the  penults  are  not  identical ; 
cf.  dati:  noti. 

2.  One  penult  ends  in  a  vowel  or  diphthong ;  the  other  in  a 
consonant.     Cf.  guati:  horti. 

3.  The  penults  end  in  consonants,  which  may  be 
(a)   identical — 

1.  The   initial   consonants   of  the  penult  are  identical; 
cf.  minno :  nianno. 

2.  The  initial  consonants  of  the  penult  are  not  identical ; 
cf.  harto  :  zvorto. 

(/8)    Not  identical,  but 

1.  Similar. 

A.  The  initial  consonants  of  the  penult  are  identical ; 
cf.  giborge:  beige. 

B.  The  initial  consonants  of  the  penult  are  not  identi- 
cal;  cf.  zcunfar:  alfar;  or 

2.  Dissimilar;'  cf.  kundti:  mahti. 

In  discussing  the  above  question  it  seems  advisable  to  start 
with  sub-class  3,  as  clearer  and  more  satisfactory  results  can 
thus  be  arrived  at. 

Let  us  consider  first,  then,  3a,  where  the  final  consonants  of 
the  penultimate  syllables  are  identical.  The  following  5  con- 
siderations serve  to  show  that  we  are  justified  in  assuming 
intentional  rime  in  these  combinations : 

L  The  rimes  occur  frequently,  662  times  in  all,  and  form 
about  13  per  cent  of  the  total  amount  of  sufiix  rime.  The  ex- 
amples are  distributed  as  follows  over  the  various  books : 


Types. 

I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

Total 

minno :  manno. 

16 

9 

14 

18 

9 

66 

harto :  zvorto. 

95 

120 

127 

132 

122 

596 

III         129         141         150         131         662 
Proper,  of  suffix  rime.     11.4%         15%      13- 1%      137%      12.4%         \l% 

Book  V  and,  more  especially,  I  again  fall  short,  as  in  all  other 

'  The  division  into  A  and  B  is  not  necessary  here  as  there  is  only  one 
example  where  the  initial  consonants  of  the  penults  are  identical — 
gisihti:  ivahsenti  (I  2^.  44). 


30 


SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID 


classes  thus  far  treated,  of  the  amount  we  should  expect  in 
view  of  their  larger  percentage  of  suffix  rime. 

II.  There  is  a  marked  tendency  to  end  the  penult  as  a  nasal 
or  liquid,  i.  e.  a  sonorous  consonant.  The  proportion  of  rimes 
in  which  this  is  the  case  to  that  in  which  it  is  not  is  459 :  203, 
showing  how  favored  the  nasals  and  liquids  were.'  /  and  r 
are  most  frequent,  the  former  occurring  186,  the  latter  158 
times  ;  n  is  found  in  114  rimes,  but  strange  to  say  no  rimes  of 
m  are  present  in  this  entire  subdivision. 

However,  as  has  been  noted  in  the  previous  classes,  m  is 
much  less  frequently  used  than  the  other  nasals  and  liquids. 
As  has  already  been  suggested,  Otfrid  seems  to  operate  upon 
the  principle  that  the  more  sonority  there  is  in  a  syllable  the 
greater  will  be  the  rime  effect  produced.  This  principle  has 
already  been  illustrated  ^  by  such  rimes  as  noti :  horti. 

Again,  in  the  rime  of  a  vowel  with  a  diphthong,^  as  in 
ddti :  guati,  notwithstanding  the  heavier  stress  of  the  first  ele- 
ment of  the  diphthong,  in  the  majority  of  these  rimes  the 
vowel  rimes  with  the  second  element,  it  being  in  most  cases 
the  more  sonorous  part.  Such  rimes  as  luti'.giiati,  i.  e.  with 
the  first  element,  are  rare. 

III.  In  addition  to  the  final  consonant  of  the  penult,  its 
initial  consonant  is  often  identical,  thus  heightening  the  rime 
effect.  Cf.  minno  :  manno.  The  number  of  instances  coming 
under  this  subdivision  is  66,  in  all  of  which  this  identity  must 
be  regarded  as  striven  for,  as  an  increase  to  the  rime  of  the 
penult :  ( i )  Because  this  same  feature  has  already  been  noted 
in  other  categories  of  rimes,  and  will  also  be  pointed  out  in 
classes  not  yet  discussed.  To  mention  by  way  of  anticipation 
one  other  class  outside  of  penultimate  rime  where  this  identity  is 
found,  there  is,  in  antepenultimate  rime,  a  type  obana :  thanana, 
occurring  42  times,  and  belonging  to  the  same  category  but 
with  the  initial  consonant  identical  are  such  rimes  as  thanana: 
thegana,  16  instances,  of  which  the  latter  rime  constitutes  12. 
In  obana :  thanana  there  is  really  no  agreement  of  the  antepe- 

^  Of  the  non-sonorous  consonants  there  are  85  cases  of  rimes  in  j  and 
72  in  h. 

'  P.  23. 

^  P.  26  and  note. 


PENULTIMATE  RIME  3 1 

niilt.  whereas  in  thanana  :  thcgana  this  syllable  is  brought  into 
rime  by  means  of  its  identical  initial  consonant.  The  propor- 
tion of  the  latter  to  the  former  class,  constituting  as  it  does 
two-ninths  of  the  total,  is  too  great  to  admit  of  the  identity 
being  explained  as  due  to  accident ;  it  is,  therefore,  to  be  re- 
garded as  a  conscious  effort  to  bring  the  antepenult  into  rime. 
In  the  juiiuio:  manno  type  rime  may  be  already  affirmed  on  the 
basis  of  the  identical  final  consonant  of  the  penult,  and  w-e  may, 
therefore,  go  a  step  further  and  assume  intentional  corre- 
spondence of  initial  consonant,  a  feature  that  we  have  already 
seen  playing  a  part  in  the  rime  of  the  prefixes  gi :  gi. 

The  ratio  of  the  minno\  manno  to  the  harto'.ivorto  rimes  is 
about  1 : 9,  which,  with  the  evidence  above  given,  is  sufficiently 
high  to  prove  the  point. 

(2)  Because  there  is  a  marked  tendency  to  use  these  rimes 
in  groups,  showing  that  the  rime  was  pleasing  enough  to  bear 
repetition  again  and  again.  Cf.  minno :  manno,  i  ;  minnon  : 
mannon,  9:  wortori:  ezvarton,  9;  zvorte:ewarte,  i;  worto: 
zi'idanuerto,  2  ;  worton  :  zvidarzvertdn,  2  ;  rehte :  rihte,  3  ;  zvorte  : 
antunirte,  3  ;  lante :  elilente,  3  ;  lante:  ilente,  i  ;  zuoiti:  giwelti,  2, 
irwolli'.irwelli,  i  ;  zvollent :  zvellent,  i  ;  wollet:  wellet,  i ;  others 
might  be  quoted,  occuring  once  or  twice  and  showing  the  same 
identity  as  in  the  above  rimes. 

IV.  The  rimes  of  both  the  zvorto :  harto  and  minnon  :  mannon 
types  must  have  been  in  good  standing  because,  as  already 
shown  above,  in  a  part  of  this  class,  i.  e.  the  minno '.manno 
rimes,  they  are  found  so  often  in  rime  groups  that  intention 
may  be  assumed.  A  few  of  the  zvorto :  harto  type  are  harto 
:  zvorto,  67  ;  drnhtin :  mahtin^  27  ;  zvizzi :  nuzzi,  10  ;  foil  on  :  zvil- 
Icn,  22;  zuillen  (noun)  \fnllen  (vb.),  16:  festi:  briisti,  10;  alle: 
folle,  9:  nahtes:  rehtes,  5;  fristi :  fcsti,  6;  thanne  :  zellenne,  3; 
thanne:  tJiariiine,  3;  herton:zvorton,  5. 

Grimm "  places  the  rimes  of  the  minno :  manno  type  under 
the  rubric  of  identical  rime  ;  but  at  the  beginning  of  his  study 
he  has  defined  riihrendcr  rcim  as  follows:  "  Riihrender  Reim 
setzt  vollige  Gleichheit  aller  Buchstaben  voraus."     It  appears, 

'  Cf.  Refrain  V  23. 

^  Kleinere  Schriften  4,  160. 


32  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OFF  RID 

therefore,  that  he  has  departed  from  his  definition  with  regard 
to  these  rimes.  PauFs  designation  (Grundriss,"  p.  no)  of  this 
type  as  "  riihrender  ungenauer  Reim  "  contains  a  clear  contra- 
dictio  in  adjecto.  The  above  discussion  has  presented  these 
combinations  in  a  different  Hght,  and  has  served  to  show  that 
they  are  not  to  be  regarded  as  identical  rime  ^  but  should  be 
classified  as  inaccurate  penultimate  rime,  exhibiting  a  some- 
what more  advanced  stage  than  the  harto :  zvarto  type,  but 
being  of  the  same  general  nature ;  that  also  this  identity  was 
conscious,  forming  part  of  a  plan  to  secure  as  much  agreement 
in  the  riming  syllables  as  possible. 

It  may  be  objected  that,  if  this  latter  observation  be  true, 
Otfrid's  conception  of  the  most  accurate  rime  would  be  identi- 
cal rime.  While  such  a  statement  would  not  be  warranted, 
yet  Otfrid  cannot  be  said  to  manifest  a  marked  tendency 
towards  avoidance  of  identical  rime,  as  4^  per  cent  of  the 
entire  body  of  his  rimes  consists  of  such. 

The  usage  of  the  other  rimed  poems  of  the  Old  High  Ger- 
man period  also  corresponds  rather  closely  to  that  of  Otfrid,^ 

V.  It  can  be  shown  in  the  majority  of  cases  that  the  vowels 
of  the  penults  themselves,  though  not  identical,  are  not  ar- 
ranged at  haphazard  with  reference  to  each  other,  but  that 
there  is  a  tendency  to  rime  the  vowels  most  closely  related  with 
one  another,  thus  bringing  both  consonant  and  vowel  into  rime. 

As  is  well  known,^  a  as  '  reiner  \"okal  '  is  the  most  sonorous 
of  all  the  vowels,  while  n  and  /  are  the  least  sonorous.  As 
middle  stages  respectively  between  a  and  i  and  between  a  and 
u  lie  e  and  0.  If,  then,  we  examine  the  riming  penultimate 
vowels  of  3a  with  these  facts  in  mind,  what  conclusions  can  be 
reached  in  ree;ard  to  the  riminsf  vowels? 

First,  as  to  the  vowel  a,  152  of  the  344  instances  are  rimes 
with  0.  That  is  to  say,  nearly  one-half  of  the  total  number  of 
rimes  of  a,  the  vowel  occurring  most  frequently,  are  with  0, 
and  about  a  fourth  of  the  662  rimes  of  which  this  class  is  com- 
posed are  rimes  between  these  two  vowels.     Both  mid-back 

^  Cf.  Identical  Rime. 

'  Cf.  under  Identical  Rime,  p.  61. 

^  Cf.  S levers'  Phonetik,  p.  78. 


PENULTIMATE  RIME  33 

vowels,  the  one  unrounded  and  the  other  rounded,  they  are  the 
two  most  similar  and  sonorous  of  the  vowels,  and  their  fre- 
quency in  rime  together  is  thus  fully  explained,  and  must  be 
regarded  as  intentional.  That  this  conjunction  of  a  and  0  is 
not  due  to  mere  chance  may  be  further  enforced  by  the  con- 
sideration that  proportionally  to  the  total  number  of  occur- 
rences of  a  we  should  expect  rimes  with  0  only  65  times; 
whereas,  as  stated,  these  actually  number  152. 

This  same  effort  can  be  demonstrated  in  the  case  of  other 
vowels  that  are  similar,  though  perhaps  not  so  clearly  and 
forcibly  as  in  the  above  collocation.  Thus,  a :  e  occurs  79 
times,  this  being,  after  a :  0,  the  most  frequent  rime  of  a,  while 
as  regards  e  the  latter  vowel  is  found  joined  in  rime  with  it 
most  frequently  of  all.  Though  the  similarity  is  not  as  great 
as  in  the  former  case,  still  it  may  be  considered  as  sufficient. 
Furthermore,  e  is  third  in  order  of  sonority,  the  sequence  being 

represented  bv  a-o-e  \^  .     So  that  it  would  seem  that  in  this 

instance,  also,  the  riming  of  a :  ^  is  to  be  explained  on  the  same 
score. 

Sixty-three  rimes  of  c :  i  are  found,  and  79  of  i :  11.  The 
former  class  docs  not  call  for  any  special  comment ;  in  regard 
to  the  latter  it  is  noteworthy  that  in  47  instances,  i.  e.  over  half 
of  them,  the  consonant  immediately  preceding  the  i  is  zu.  Cf. 
irianntan  :  gihnntan,  fiiUe :  wille.  The  tendency  of  the  w  is  to 
produce  the  efYect  of  a  rounding  of  the  i,  a  sound  similar 
enough  to  n  to  be  used  in  rime  with  it. 

In  the  vowels  riming  together  most  extensively  we  may, 
therefore,  see  a  similarity,  and  in  proportion  as  this  likeness 
decreases  there  is  a  corresponding  decrease  in  the  number  of 
times  that  such  vowels  are  joined  together  in  rime.  Thus,  a:  i, 
46;  e'.o,  40;  i'.o,  33,  all  of  which  figures  are  less  than  we 
should  expect  in  proportion  to  the  total  number  of  times  that 
the  vowels  concerned  appear  in  rime.  On  the  other  hand, 
similar  vowels  rime  together  usually  about  twice  as  often  as 
the  proportion  to  their  total  number  of  occurrences  would  lead 
us  to  expect. 

If  this  investigation  of  penultimate  vowels  should  be  ex- 
tended so  as  to  include  all  classes  of  penultimate  rime  where 


34 


SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID 


the  vowel  is  not  identical,  the  above  results  would  remain  sub- 
stantially the  same.  The  vowel  combinations  occurring  most 
frequently  are  :  a  :  o,  a:  e,  e  :  i,  and  i :  u.  In  the  case  of  the 
last  mentioned  the  numerous  instances  may  again  in  great  part 
be  explained  as  due  to  a  similarity  between  them,  produced  by 
the  presence  of  a  w  preceding  the  i  vowel.  Furthermore,  there 
are  in  most  cases  twice  as  many  of  these  rimes  as  would  be 
found  if  they  were  due  to  accident  and  distributed  proportion- 
ally. Contrariwise,  the  more  unlike  vowels  occur  less  often 
together  than  can  be  justified  or  explained  on  any  other  score 
than  that  of  conscious  avoidance. 

Let  us  next  take  up  the  sub-class  fB  of  the  above  ^  division  3, 
in  which  the  consonant  ending  the  penult  is  not  identical  but 
either   (i)   similar,  or   (2)   dissimilar. 

Nearly  the  same  proofs  may  be  applied  here,  in  support  of 
penultimate  rime,  as  in  sub-class  a. 

I.  Though  not  constituting  as  large  a  class  as  the  former, 
these  rimes  are  not  infrequent.  Altogether  169  examples  occur, 
distributed  as  follows : 


Types. 

I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

Total 

Jborge :  beige. 
\wuntar :  altar. 
2.       kundti:  mahti. 

I 

28 

6 

6 

29 

2 

2 

34 
0 

2 
31 

3 

I 

24 

0 

12 

146 
II 

35 
3-6% 

2>7 

36 

36 

3-2% 

25 
2.3% 

169 

It  should  be  noted  that  6  of  the  11  rimes  in  which  the  con- 
sonants ending  the  penults  are  dissimilar  are  in  Book  I.  The 
percentage  of  this  book  is  slightly  higher  for  the  entire  class 
than  that  in  any  other  book  except  II,  but  in  neither  I  nor  V 
do  we  find  as  large  a  proportion  as  would  be  expected  in  view 
of  the  extent  of  their  suffix  rime. 

II.  The  penult  syllable  ends  regularly  in  a  nasal  or  liquid, 
i.  e.  a  sonorous  consonant.  Only  11  instances  of  other  con- 
sonants are  found.  The  rime  of  r\n  is  quite  common,  occur- 
ring 92  times;  less  frequent  is  I'.r  (36  times),  and  l\n  (22 
times).     The  rime  of  m   is   rare,  occurring  in  only  4  cases, 

*  Cf.  p.  29. 


PENULTIMATE  RIME  35 

which  agrees  with  previous  statements  in  other  classes  as  to 
its  in  frequency. 

III.  In  addition  to  the  similarity  of  the  final  consonant  the 
initial  consonant  of  the  penult  is  at  times  identical.  This 
identity,  as  already  demonstrated,  was  striven  for.  The  in- 
stances are:  zi'crkd)i :  biwankoii  (II  4.  88 ;  23.  11)  ;  antwurten 
'.iventcn  (IV  7.  22;  9.-5)  ;  milti:  niainniiinti  (II  16.  5;  III  14. 
Ill;  19.  12)  ;  zi'iirtitniwoltun  (V  24.  9)  ;  giborge:  beige  (II 
18.  15);  giberge:  abulge  (I  23.  40);  widarwinnon-.warndn 
(II  3.  56);  funtan:  einfaltan  (II  7.  55);  gisihti :  wahsenti  (I 
23.44). 

IV.  Notwithstanding  the  small  size  of  the  class,  rime-groups 
are  present,  showing  that  such  a  rime  as  wiintar :  altar  was 
acceptable.  Cf.  manno  :  gerno,  9  ;  inilti :  antwurti,  8  ;  a  form  of 
findan  :  a  form  of  zverdan,  6 ;  a  form  of  thenkeu  :  a  form  of 
zmrken,  15  ;  a  form  of  githanko  (noun)  :  a  form  of  zverko 
(noun),  13;  managfalto-.ivorto,  4,  and  others  of  less  frequent 
occurrence. 

V.  The  tendency  to  rime  the  most  similar  and  sonorous 
vowels  may  again  be  observed.  The  rime  of  i  and  «  also  is 
frequent,  but  it  should  be  noted  that  in  12  out  of  a  total  of  18 
rimes,  i  is  again  preceded  by  w. 

The  above  considerations  serve  to  show  that  in  class  (i  we 
have  penultimate  rime,  consisting  in  the  rime  of  similar  final 
consonants  and  like  vowels,  with  at  times  the  additional  agree- 
ment of  the  initial  consonant  of  the  penult. 

We  are  now  prepared  to  take  up  classes  i  and  2  of  the  same 
main  category.  These  two  are  best  treated  together  as  2  con- 
stitutes so  small  a  class.     The  statistics  are : 


Types. 

I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

Total 

Jdoti:  gidati. 
\ddti:  noti. 

2 

0 

2 

2 

5 

II 

43 

43 

74 

92 

76 

328 

2.      gizitin :  -wurtin. 

15 

5 

10 

10 

6 

46 

60 

48 

86 

104 

87 

385 

6.1% 

5.6% 

7-9% 

94% 

8.2% 

7.5% 

As   shown   above,   there   is   a   redundant   consonant   in   one 
penult  in  46  instances.     Cf .  guati :  hortl;  dati :  hd}tti.     These 


36  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID 

latter  do  not  interfere  with  the  penultimate  rime  because  in  all 
except  8  cases  these  consonants  are  nasals  or  liquids,  and  are, 
therefore,  sonorous  elements.  Of  these,  n  and  r  are  most 
numerous,  the  former  occurring  i8,  the  latter  17  times.  Only 
three  instances  of  /  are  found  and  none  of  m. 

There  is,  then,  a  tolerably  frequent  appearance  of  rime  of 
this  noti :  ddti  class,  Book  V  containing  its  approximate  pro- 
portion, but  Book  I  being  still  found  wanting. 

The  tendency  to  group  the  rimes  around  certain  words  is 
very  marked,  as  in  other  classes.  Thus,  there  occur :  noti :  dati 
19 ;  a  form  of  not :  a  form  of  Hut,  14 ;  noti :  ziti,  16 ;  noti :  muati, 
12;  noti:  guati,  12;  ginoto:  thrato,  8;  ndti\arabciti,  5;  wdra: 
lera,  7;  wdra\mera,  18;  a  form  of  zcarra  form  of  diuri,  6; 
datiiliuti,  12;  giddtiin  (wh.)  :  rietiin  (vb.),  7;  ddti:  ziti,  3; 
giiato:  araheito,  7  (cf.  V  23);  guatl'.heroti,  3;  giiate:  gibiete 
(vb.),  3,  and  others. 

The  initial  consonant  of  the  penult  is  sometimes  identical, 
though  less  frequently  than  in  the  classes  already  discussed. 
The  rimes  are:  ddti:  giddti  (V  7.  41)  ;  ddtmi'.hiddtun  (V  34. 
3)  ;  girdti:  herdti  (III  25.  21)  ;  mdruiarmeru  (I  7.  10)  ;  ungi- 
mezen :  gimasen  (V  10.  24)  ;  nidron  :  meron  (III  7.  86)  ;  sdre 
:  sere  (IV  34.  19);  scdiiaz:  scinaz  (I  17.  19);  Hebe :  giloiibe 
(V  23.  211);  siintildsan-.ilrliasan  (IV  26.  22);  ginouianan: 
niinan  (V  7.  29). 

A  glance  at  the  above  rime  groups  shows  how  numerous  the 
rimes  are  of  not  in  its  inflectional  forms  with  forms  of  ddt, 
lint,  zit,  etc.,  as  also  the  rimes  between  zvdra  or  some  form  of 
war  and  lera,  mera,  etc. ;  likewise,  ddt,  giiati,  and  others  of  less 
frequent  occurrence.  The  question  now  presents  itself,  how 
can  these  extremely  common  rimes,  such  as  noti:  ddti,  be  ex- 
plained unless  we  admit  rime  of  the  penult  ?  Tesch '  has  ob- 
served that  nearly  all  the  instances  of  noti,  wdra,  etc.,  vised  so 
frequently  in  the  above  rime  groups,  occur  in  rime  in  adverbial 
phrases  as  mere  rime  padding,  neither  adding  to  nor  detracting 
from  the  sense  of  the  line.  If,  then,  such  a  rime  as  noti:  ddti 
were  not  considered  good  by  our  author,  why  should  he  have 

^  Zur  Entstehnngsgeschichte  des  Evangelienbuches  von  Otfrid  (Greifs- 
wald,   1890),  p.  9  f. 


\ 

; 

PENULTIMATE  RIME  37 

used  this  combination  so  constantly?  Nor  can  it  be  urged 
that  there  were  few  other  rimes  in  -Cifi  to  rime  with  dati  and 
that  the  makeshift  was  due  to  this  fact.  For,  on  consulting 
Ingenbleek's  Lcxikon,  such  rime  endings  are  found  in  abun- 
dance/ and  it.  therefore,  appears  that  the  rime  of  noti:  dati  was 
not  forced  upon  the  poet  but  clearly  chosen.  By  this  is  not 
meant  that  noti  does  not  occur  in  rime  with  other  words  in  -oti, 
for  it  does,  though  not  quite  as  frequently  as  with  the  word 
under  discussion." 

Similarily,  n'ara  in  its  various  forms  is  a  common  rime  used 
in  adverbial  phrases  as  a  pure  rime  expedient,  and  if  we  ask 
ourselves  the  reason  for  its  frequency  of  rime  with  such  words 
as  leva  and  iiicra,  a  reference  to  Ingenbleek  shows  that  here, 
too,  it  was  a  question  not  of  compulsion,  but  of  choice.  Other 
rimes  in  -era  occur  often  enough,'  and  could  have  been  used  in 
place  of  z<.'ara  had  it  been  felt  as  at  all  objectionable. 

It  seems  clear,  therefore,  that  we  must  accept  rime  of  the 
penult  in  this  class  of  w^ords,  and  an  investigation  of  the  riming 
penultimate  vowels  will  strengthen  this  point  of  view,  as  the 
most  similar  vowels  are  found  in  rime  together,  just  as  in  the 
preceding  category,  where  this  question  was  sufficiently  dis- 
cussed. It  may  be  added,  however,  that  of  rimes  between  a 
diphthong  and  vowel,  as  in  giiati :  noti,  the  most  frequent  rime 
is  of  iia :  0,  occurring  43  times,  in  which  we  may  consider  either 
the  0  and  11,  or  0  and  a  as  riming,  both  parts  of  the  diphthong 
being  similar  to  the  riming  vowel  in  question. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  there  may  be  found  such  instances 
as  liiiti'.dati,  ziti\ndti  with  tolerable  frequency  (i.  e.  23  and 
16  times  respectively),  where  there  is  little  or  no  similarity 
between  the  vocalic  elements,  but  in  the  majority  of  cases  the 
aim  to  rime  similar  vowels  can  be  observed  and  intention 
predicated. 

When,  therefore,  we  get  the  type  ctti'.noti,  both  words 
having  primary  accent  and  long  vowels,  I  believe  that  we  have 

^  Rimes  of  -Sti: -ati=zyg;  -5ti:  -oti  =^25;  -dti : -oti  =:  29- 
^  noti :  dati  =  19 ;  noti :  -oti  z=z  17. 

^  -ara  :  -ara  18  times  ;  -era  :  -era  19 ;  -ara  :  -era  28 ;  wara :  lera  7  and  : 
mera  18. 


38  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID 

the  inception  of  penultimate  rime,  for  certainly  such  instances 
as  scmaz:  sconaz  must  be  looked  upon  as  rime,  and  though 
these  are  rare  as  compared  to  the  total  number  of  this  class, 
they,  nevertheless,  show  one  of  the  first  steps. 

Secondly  comes  the  noti'.dati  types,  where  the  similarity  of 
the  vowels  and  their  sonority  constitutes  the  rime,  and  which 
points  the  way  to  the  final  stage,  i.  e.  identity  of  the  vowels  and 
accurate  penultimate  rime,  cf .  ddti :  spati. 

In  our  examination  of  penultimate  rime  hitherto  we  have 
found  the  final  syllable  always  identical,  but  we  are  now  to  turn 
our  attention  to  rimes  in  which  the  initial  consonant  of  the 
ultima  is  different,  although  its  vowel  is  the  same.  This  lat- 
ter constitutes  a  much  smaller  class  than  the  preceding,  the 
ratio  being  about  i6^  to  i. 

We  may  distinguish  two  divisions:  (i)  The  initial  con- 
sonants of  the  ultima  are  similar,  cf.  wdra'.  zala,  and  (2)  The 
initial  consonants  are  not  similar,  cf.  lihe :  sine.  The  total 
number  of  penultimate  rimes  comprised  under  i  is  355,  these 
forming  over  one-half  of  the  entire  number  of  rimes  in  which 
the  final  syllable  is  not  identical.  The  rimes  included  under  i 
are  of  nasals  and  liquids,  and  of  d :  n.  They  are  given  below 
in  order  of  frequency :  / :  n^  94 ;  ng  :n,  62;  d:  n,  54 ;  m  :  n,  31 ; 
l:r,  31;  n:r,  30;  m:r,  22;  l:ng,  14;  d\ng,  10;  I'.m,  5;  ng: 
m,  2. 

These  rimes  have  been  discussed  at  length  under  Ultima^ 
where  the  riming  quality  of  such  combinations  as  d :  }i,  which 
might  be  doubted,  was  made  evident ;  it  is,  therefore,  not  neces- 
sary to  consider  this  point  again  in  this  connection. 

The  way  in  which  the  rimes  are  divided  will  appear  from 
the  following  table: 


I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

Total 

84 

6s 

73 

46 

87 

355 

The  larger  amount  in  I  and  V  is  no  doubt  explained  by  their 
greater  proportion  of  sufiix  rime  as  compared  with  the  other 
books;  in  Class  I,  that  is  where  the  final  syllable  is  identical, 
we  found  these  two  books  usually  lagging  behind  in  point  of 
frequency  of  rimes,  although  we  expected  them,  to  forge  ahead 


PENULTIMATE  RIME 


39 


for  the  reason  above  given ;  we  here  see  where,  at  least  in  part, 
this  greater  percentage  makes  its  appearance. 

As  in  the  preceding  class,  rime  groups  still  hold  their  own, 
a  few  of  which  may  be  noted,  from  the  various  divisions  of 
this  main  class : 

An  inflectional  form  of  sui  (poss.  pron.)  :  a  form  of  blidi 
(adj.),  12;  fJilucji:  luldcii,  11;  thanncallc,  15;  uianne\alle,  5; 
a  form  of  iiciiiicu:  a  form  of  ::cllc]i,  8:  a  form  of  gimcinew. 
deilcn,  7;  giuiciiii:  Jicill,  7;  a  form  of  iiidri :  a  form  of  seltsani, 
8;  qiidiiiini  :zi'anin,  9;  meiiia :  goujiia,  4;  era'.scla,  7;  mera: 
scia,  6;  a  form  of  bigijinan  :  a.  form  of  thingen,  5;  a  form  of 
higinnan:  a  form  of  ringan,  7;  gauge:  thanne,  6;  sindes:  hei- 
minges,  4. 

The  above  were  cited  in  order  to  show  the  frequency  with 
which  a  certain  rime  group  is  repeated  in  this  small  class  of 
355  instances.  An  examination  of  them  will  also  bring  out 
the  fact  that,  as  we  should  expect,  there  is  a  conscious  effort 
to  bring  the  penults  into  rime. 

Neglecting  for  the  present  the  difference  in  the  final  syllable, 
and  taking  into  account  the  penult  alone,  we  may  arrange  these 
rimes  under  the  same  rubrics  as  those  given  in  our  main  Class 
I,  and  we  shall  see  that  they  conform  perfectly  to  this 
arrangement. 

Corresponding  to  accurate  penultimate  rime  of  the  above 
class,  such  as  hl'ide-.nlde,  we  have  here  zCda\z<.'dra,  iiuie : 
kinde,  s'mw.hl'idu,  gimeinen:  deden,   higinnew.  siiide,   etc. 

This  type  includes  154  rimes,  i.  e.  over  half  of  the  total 
number  of  the  class,  which  again  illustrates  the  fact  that  rime 
of  the  penult  was  aimed  at  as  well  as  of  the  ultima. 

Of  rimes  in  which  the  initial  consonants  of  the  penults 
heighten  the  rime  effect  by  being  identical  there  are :  zvdni : 
wdri  (I  15.  23)  ;  niheine:  heime  (I  i.  94)  ;  niheuian:  heilaii  (I 
I.  98);  riiarit :  niauiit  (II  2.  19);  niheiiier:  heiler  (III  21. 
2y)  ;  gincndu  :  ncnnii  (III  22.  58)  ;  m'lnan  :  midan  (IV  26.  30)  ; 
seltsdne :  sd7'e   (V  12.  17). 

Corresponding  to  the  type  noti:  horti,  there  are  only  3  rimes, 
namely,  riiame:  duanne,  andremo:  gerno,  and  loiignen:  gou- 
uicji;  but  such  rimes  as  tliaiinc:  alle,  zcUen:  nennen,  corre- 
sponding to  the  type  hcilfa:  giniciiifa  are  again  numerous,  there 


40  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID 

being  102  instances;  the  penult  ends  in  a  nasal  or  liquid  in  all 
cases. 

Of  the  type  giiati :  ddti  there  is  a  very  small  representation  in 
Class  II,  only  3  rimes  being  found:  heilen:  thine n;  mdrun: 
thiarnun,  and  waltendan :  einan. 

The  type  represented  in  Class  I  by  riati :  giiati,  comprises 
here  only  4  examples,  namely:  zioro:  stuolo ;  diiira:  eina; 
ziaro:  thiojio,  and  fuanin:iiahin  (IV  16.  42),  in  the  last  of 
which  the  initial  consonant  of  the  penult  is  identical. 

Of  the  type  worto :  harto  of  Class  I  there  are  only  5  rimes 
in  Class  II:  wamie :  mende ,  manne\kinde,  mannon:undon  2, 
sindes :  siiimmannes. 

Of  the  w lint ar :  altar  type,  where  the  penultimate  consonant 
is  not  identical  but  similar,  the  rimes  are  more  numerous,  i.  e. 
59 ;  in  3  cases  the  initial  consonant  is  identical,  corresponding 
to  the  borge:  beige  class  of  I,  viz.,  thanne:  thinge  (II  6.  45)  ; 
werreniwoUen  (IV  14.  16);  stirri:  gistelU  (V  17.  29).  The 
final  consonant  of  the  penult  is  in  each  case  a  nasal  or  liquid, 
and  this  class,  as  well  as  the  others  above  mentioned,  has  ex- 
actly the  same  characteristics  as  the  corresponding  types  of 
Class  I,  leaving  out  of  consideration,  of  course,  the  ultimate 
syllable. 

There  occur  25  rimes  of  the  ndti:ddti  type,  such  as  wari 
:  sconi,  want :  Rfimii,  etc.,  in  8  of  which  the  riming  vowels  are 
a:  0,  i.  e.  the  two  most  similar  vowels.  Moreover,  the  initial 
consonant  of  the  penult  is  in  3  cases  identical :  scire :  sme 
(IV  7.  33;  19.  5)  and  wdra-.wtla  (IV  13.  4),  again  illus- 
trating the  effort  to  rime  the  penult,  even  though  the  vowels 
are  not  identical. 

So  much,  then,  for  penultimate  rime  in  which  the  ultimate 
syllable  is  not  identical,  as  in  Class  I,  but  similar.  As  regards 
our  second  class,  in  which  there  is  no  similarity  of  the  begin- 
ning consonant  of  the  final  syllable,  as  in  lihe:  thine,  sluagun 
:  wdmn,  etc.,  little  discussion  seems  necessary,  as  it  exhibits 
the  same  features  as  the  preceding  classes  and  the  same  aim 
may  be  observed  to  bring  the  penult  into  rime.  It  remains, 
however,  to  show  in  what  proportion  this  rime  is  found  in  the 
various  books,  and  under  what  types  it  is  to  be  classified. 


PENULTIMATE  RIME  41 

There  are  269  rimes  belonging-  here,  this  being  the  smaller 
of  the  two  classes.     Thev  are  divided : 


I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

Total 

74 

30 

45 

SZ 

67 

269 

It  will  be  noticed  that  in  this  class,  as  in  the  preceding, 
Books  I  and  \ ,  and  more  especially  the  former,  contain  more 
rimes  than  the  remaining  books.  If  the  examples  for  these 
two  classes  be  added  together,  the  result  is  as  follows : 


I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

Tota 

Class    I 

84 

65 

72> 

46 

87 

355 

Class   2 

74 

30 

45 

53 

67 

269 

158  95  118  99  154  624 

The  question  now  to  be  answered  is,  wdiat  part  of  the  penul- 
timate rime  of  each  book  does  the  rime  of  the  above  classes 
form  ? 

Penultimate  rime,  in  all  its  types,  is  distributed  as  follows : 


I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

Total 

804 

767 

963 

948 

956 

4438 

Classes  i  and  2  form  the  following  percentages  of  the  total 
penultimate  rime:  I,  19.7  per  cent;  II,  12.4  per  cent;  III, 
12.3  per  cent;  I\^,  10.5  per  cent;  V,  16.1  per  cent. 

What  may  we  conclude  from  the  fact  that  V,  and  more 
especially  I,  are  distinguished  from  the  other  books  in  their 
more  frequent  use  of  penultimate  rime  in  which  the  final  syl- 
lable is  not  identical?  May  we  not  assume,  on  the  basis  of 
this  evidence,  that  I  and  V  are  of  earlier  origin?  It  seems 
quite  reasonable  to  regard  such  rimes  as  s'lne :  m'lde,  gdbi :  zcari 
as  marking  an  earlier  and  less  skilled  period  in  the  career  of 
our  poet,  particularly  in  consideration  of  the  fact  that  rimes  in 
wdiich  the  final  syllable  is  identical  are  so  very  much  more 
predominant.  In  view  of  the  other  stylistic  peculiarities  of 
Book  1/  which  are  usually  explained  as  due  to  an  earlier  date 

^  Especially  rimeless  verses  and  the  use  of  alliteration.  Cf.  Koegel, 
Deutsche  Litteraturgeschichte,  I  2.  23  and  40,  and  PG^  II,  116. 


42 


SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID 


of  composition,  the  evidence  above  cited  materially  strength- 
ens this  point  of  view  for  this  book  at  least,  containing  as  it 
does  the  largest  proportion  of  the  wdra :  ^ala  rimes. 

Returning  to  Class  III,  we  observe  how  rime  groups  are 
still  a  favorite  expedient ;  to  the  accurate  type  of  this  class 
belong :  scozvon  :  ongon,  i6  ;  boiinie :  gilonhe,  9  ;  I'lhe :  thine, 
14  (cf.  V  23);  quamun :  gisahim,  7;  hoho:  scono,  5.  Rimes 
of  this  accurate  penultimate  type  comprise  167  instances,  i.  e. 
over  one-half  of  the  total  269  of  this  class. 

The  following  have  the  initial  consonant  of  the  penult  identi- 
cal:  Maria  :mdra  (I  6.  i)  ;  werdaniwerban  (III  6.  21); 
gdhi:  gigdhi  (IV  14.  10);  iidhit:gindit  (IV  29.  9).  The 
other  types  are  so  few  in  number  that  no  rime  groups  occur 
sufficiently  often  to  deserve  mention. 

Type  notiihorti  of  Class  I,  only  8  examples.  Cf.  liobon: 
thioriidn,  geistes:  giheizes,  tothes'.heimortes,  etc. 

Type  hcilta:  gimcinta,  also  8  instances.  Cf.  stimmon:  kin- 
don,  erdu;  zellu,  sorgon  :  follon,  etc. 

Type  guati :  ddti,  6  rimes.  Cf.  lieben :  thlnen,  sluagun : 
wdrun,  muates :  anhiz!:es,  etc. 

Type  riati :  guati,  only  5.     Cf.  liobcr :  niamer,  hoitbit :  fiiagit. 

Type  zvorto:  harto,  10.  Cf.  selben:  galgen,  zvarba:  erda, 
alles :  feldes. 

Type  zimntar:  altar,  20;  in  17  of  which  the  final  consonant  of 
the  penult  is  a  nasal  or  liquid.  Cf.  zverbent:  folgent,  belgan 
:biginnan.     Cf.  also,  zjoerdeizjuoUe  (I  5.  63). 

Type  ndti:ddti,  22  rimes.  Cf.  hohiiddti,  sina:::  gistdtaz, 
irldren:zvezven,  liobon:  ginuagon.  Also  zjudrdn:zvezvon  (III 
16.  28). 

Type  ddti:  Jionti,  18  instances  in  which  the  extra  consonant 
is  predominantly  sonorous,  i.  e.  a  nasal  or  liquid.  Cf.  stantan 
:  sconan;  thinaz:  gihdrtaz;  slnaz:  fuUoitac,  and  others. 

Penultimate-Antepenultimate  Rime 

Before  passing  to  a  discussion  of  antepenultimate  rime,  we 
have  to  deal  with  a  small  number  of  rimes,  104  altogether,  in 
which  there  is  undoubtedly  rime  between  the  penult  of  one 
word  and  the  antepenult  of  the  other. 


PEN  UL  TIM  A  TE-AN  TEPEN  UL  TIM  A  TE  RIME 


43 


A  few  such  rimes  may  be  cited  by  way  of  illustration : 
folgrfun  '.zi'oltiDi :  gitJiaJit'i'.  ahtonti;  noti:  stozenti;  not'r.fol- 
geti;  gici}idtun\  gidciltun ;  farcta  :  7'uarta ;  ajidrcmo  -.ango; 
wurzchln-.bhiouiun;  ougun:  giscozvotun;  luubi:  mennisgi. 

As  the  above  instances  show,  the  antepenult  is  long  in  every 
case,  thus  allowing  secondary  stress  on  either  of  the  following 
syllables.  We  may  assume,  however,  that  it  is  the  ultima  that 
here  bears  the  heavier  of  the  secondary  stresses,  and  that  the 
penult  is  slurred,  forming  a  mere  glide  from  the  antepenult  to 
the  ultima.  For  example,  the  rime  of  the  first  words  of  the 
above  is  a  proof  that  they  should  be  accented  thus :  folgetun 
:  ivoltiin,  as  only  by  such  stress  can  the  riming  parts  be  brought 
into  prominence. 

These  rimes  fall  into  the  same  categories  with  regard  to  the 
ultima  as  those  of  penultimate  rime,  namely:  I.  The  final 
syllable  is  identical,  naturally  the  largest  division,  containing 
60  rimes,  i.  e.  over  half  the  total  number. 

II.  The  vowel  of  the  ultima  is  identical,  but  the  initial  con- 
sonant is  only  similar,  the  smallest  class,  with  only  9  rimes. 

III.  The  vowel  of  the  final  syllable  is  identical,  but  the 
initial  consonant  is  neither  identical  nor  similar. 

Here  are  found  35  instances,  making  in  all  a  total  of  104. 
These  are  distributed  as   follows  among  the  various  books : 


I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

Total 

Class  I 

16 

6 

16 

13 

9 

60 

Class  II 

0 

0 

I 

2 

I 

9 

Class  III 

19 

I 

4 

2 

9 

35 

•iC 

7 

21 

17 

19 

104 

4-1% 

0.81% 

1.9% 

1-5% 

1.8% 

2% 

It  will  be  noticed  that  Book  I  contains  about  two-fifths  of 
the  total  number,  i.  e.  4.1  per  cent  of  its  total  suffix  rime  is 
made  up  of  such  rime.  This  is,  again,  an  indication,  appar- 
ently, of  the  earlier  composition  of  this  book. 

In  contrast  to  the  type  folgetun  :  zvoltiin  we  may  mention 
such  rimes  as  einotun  :  dotim,  an  entirely  common  and  char- 
acteristic  type  in  Otfrid,  in  which  both  secondary  accents  have 
their  full  stress,  and  penult  rimes  with  penult. 


44 


SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID 


Antepenultimate  Rime 

While  antepenultimate  rime,  such  as  worahta:  forahta,  can- 
not be  compared,  in  point  of  frequency  of  occurrence,  with 
penultimate  rime,  the  proportion  being  only  i  to  9,  it  is  found 
not  infrequently  and  is  no  doubt  aimed  at;  its  use  is  naturally 
more  restricted  than  that  of  penultimate  rime,  because  of  the 
greater  inherent  difficulty  of  finding  rime  words  of  three  syl- 
lables than  of  two.  In  so  far  as  the  final  syllable  is  identical 
we  may  thus  divide  the  rimes : 


I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

Total 

I.  Accurate.     5 

6 

9 

12 

6 

38 

2.  Others.       82 

53 

64 

88 

61 

348 

Total       87 

59 

72> 

100 

e? 

386 

9% 

67% 

6.6% 

8.9% 

6.2% 

ym 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  both  the  antepenult' and  the  penult, 
with  reference  to  consonants  as  well  as  to  vowels,  have  to  be 
taken  into  account  in  this  kind  of  rime,  it  is  not  surprising 
that  the  possible  types  of  this  class  as  well  as  those  actually 
occurring  should  be  so  numerous.  They  will  not,  therefore, 
here  be  exhibited  in  detail.  A  few  examples  of  both  the 
accurate  and  inaccurate  types  may  serve  as  illustrations : 
githrewita:  gistrewita;  thegana:  segana;  kordtiiworolti;  ha- 
beti:  sageti;  msamane:  habanne;  lobonti'.worolti;  tunicha: 
diiirltcha;  klagonti:  sagenti;  lobontiiwonenti;  habetiin  \  gidra- 
gotnn;  sageta:  mahalta;  HUennes'.brennennes;  gimlofi:  Jwloti; 
samanon:  theganon;  woroiti  :beranti;  garota:zvorahta;  sageta 
:  betota,  etc. 

The  main  accent  in  such  rimes  is  regularly  on  a  short  ante- 
penult {thegana),  there  being  no  stress  on  the  penultimate 
syllable. 

How  do  Classes  II  and  III,'  in  which  the  ultimas  in  the  one 
case  begin  with  similar  consonants  and  in  the  other  with  dis- 
similar, compare  with  Class  I  above,  in  which  the  ultimate  syl- 
lables are  identical?  We  find  the  same  types  of  rime  as  in 
I,  although  they  do  not  occur  so  often.  The  statistic  is  as 
follows : 

^  Cf.  p.  43. 


ANTEPENULTIMATE  RIME  45 


I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

Total 

Class  II 

7 

12 

9 

15 

25 

68 

Class  III 

3-2 

II 

19 

23 

10 

95 

Total 

39 

23 

28 

38 

35 

163 

4%         2.6%         2.5%         3-3%         3-2%  3-1% 

The  total  number  grouped  under  these  two  classes  is  not 
quite  half  as  large  as  where  the  final  syllable  is  identical ; 
Otfrid  is,  therefore,  on  his  guard  in  the  case  of  antepenulti- 
mate rime  with  regard  to  the  ultima. 

Examples  of  II  are:  gisidili:  nidiri ;  thcgana:regnla,  himile 
':  li'idirc ;  himile :  nidavc ;  rcdinii :  iiidiru;  gibilidot :  giredinot; 
hiihila:  obana,  etc. 

The  rimes  of  the  final  syllables,  or  rather  the  initial  conson- 
ants of  the  syllables,  are  as  follows  :  n:  7%  ig ;  n :  I,  i^  ;  n :  d,  it,  ', 
11 :  )ig,  5  :  // :  ni,  ^\  l\r,  10;  /:  ng,  i.  It  will  be  noticed  that  n 
is  much  more  frequent  in  these  rimes  than  any  other  consonant. 

As  illustrations  of  Class  III  may  be  mentioned :  hredigii : 
redinu;  mcnigi:  zueUfi;  edili:  bilidi;  managi:  gisamani;  pal- 
inza :  drurcnta,  etc. 

Paul  notices  in  these  two  classes  the  tendency  toward  such 
rimes  as  ingegini:  uicnigi,  in  which  at  least  one  of  the  con- 
sonants of  the  last  two  syllables  is  the  same,  but  the  order  in 
one  is  the  reverse  of  that  in  the  other.  If  we  examine  the 
rimes  of  Class  II  according  to  this  principle,  we  find  that 
nearly  one-third,  i.  e.  19  of  the  total  64  are  of  this  nature.  To 
make  the  point  of  view  quite  clear  w'e  cite  in  full :  redinu : 
frewidii,  6;  redina:  selida;  rediiidu  :  bilidou,  2;  tliegand:  kitn- 
^f^S^y  3;  githigine  •.kuningc,  i;  offonoro:  Judeono,  i;  einbo- 
ronon  :  widoron,  i. 

Class  III  shows  this  tendency  most  clearly,  for  in  36  of  its 
86  instances  both  consonants  are  the  same,  and  in  14  other 
cases  one  consonant  is  identical,  as  in  Class  II  above.  The 
examples  are:  ingegini:  menigl,'^  28;  githigiiil:  vienigi,  2; 
kisild  :  felisd,  i  ;  nianaga :  sfigaiia,  i  ;  niauaga  :  thegand,  2  ;  ma- 
nagcn:  geganen,  i;  managan:  gilegenan,  i;  edili :  bilidi,  i. 
Also,  nioiigJ:  gisaniaiii,  i  ;  uicnigu  :  redinu,  i  ;  githigini:  hebigi, 

^  g  and  11  are  especially  frequent  in  these  syllables. 


46  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID 

I ;  regula:  hrediga,  i  ;  bilidi:  fravili,  3  ;  manage  :  zisamane,  i ; 
manage :  giscrihene,  i ;  managu :  redinu,  i. 

The  ratio  of  frequency  of  this  rime  is  too  large  to  admit  of 
the  supposition  that  it  is  due  to  mere  accident;  it  is  rather  to 
be  regarded  as  a  distinct  feature  of  Otfrid's  rime  technic,  and 
Paul  is  doubtless  right  in  regarding  such  rimes  as  intentional. 

The  entire  range  of  antepenultimate  rime  may  be  exhibited 
in  the  following  table: 


I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

Total 

126 

82 

lOI 

138 

102 

549 

13% 

94% 

9.2% 

12.3% 

9-5% 

10.8% 

In  Book  I  we  find  the  largest  proportion  of  this  kind  of  rime, 
and  an  explanation  is  thus  afforded  as  to  the  reason  for  a 
smaller  percentage  on  the  part  of  I  in  some  types  of  penulti- 
mate rime. 

The  same  evidence  that  was  adduced  in  the  case  of  the  latter 
rime  may  again  be  resorted  to  in  the  present  discussion,  and  it 
leads  us  to  the  conclusion  that,  while  antepenultimate  rime 
does  not  represent  Otfrid's  norm  of  rime,  yet  where  such  rimes 
do  occur  they  are  due  to  a  conscious  intention  on  the  part  of 
the  poet  to  bring  the  syllables  in  question  into  rime. 

This  evidence — to  recapitulate  it — consists  of :  I.  The  fre- 
quency of  rime  groups.     The  following  may  be  mentioned: 

Class  I:  forahta-.zvorahta,  10;  zelita'.welita,  5;  thageta: 
sageta,  4;  scganon:  theganon,  3;  werita'.nerita,  3;  Uriorane: 
giborane,  3;  legitun:  zelitun,  4;  hahetun:  sagetim,  3;  redina: 
the  gaud,  9,  and  redindn\theganon,  7;  thanana-.thegand,  12; 
ubill:  fravili,  6;  obana:  thanana,  3;  ftirisfon:  heriston,  4;  sitoti: 
irretiti,  5;  sagetun:  zelitun,  10;  managen  :  heblgen,  4;  worolti: 
sageti,  3. 

Under  Class  II,  where  the  initial  consonants  of  the  final 
syllables  are  similar,  but  not  identical,  we  find :  redinu :  fre- 
zvidu,  6;  redina:  seli da,  5;  nidare:  himile,  5;  sidilon-.redinon, 
3 ;  redinon :  koberon,  5. 

Under  Class  III,  where  the  initial  consonants  are  neither 
identical  nor  similar,  are  the  following:  ingegini:  menigi,  28; 
bilidi :  fravili,  4 ;  bilide :  fravile,  3  ;  menigi :  githigini,  4 ;  redinon : 
bredigon,  8 ;  manage :  gar  awe,  3. 


ANTEPENULTIMATE  RIME 


47 


II.  The  identity  of  the  initial  consonant  of  the  antepenult,  as 
a  means  of  bringing^  this  syllable  into  rime,  or  heightening  the 
rime  effect;  cf.  selidoji:  salidoii.  This  effort  may  be  most 
clearly  proved  from  such  a  type  as  sainandii:  theganon.  Of  14 
rimes  of  this  kind  12  are  of  thegand:thanana,  showing  that 
Otfrid  resorted  to  this  means  as  an  expedient  for  securing  rime 
of  the  antepenult. 

Beginning,  as  before,  with  the  examples  of  our  largest  main 
class,  I,  we  find:  cisaiuane :  sabane  (V  6.  57);  zisamane: 
saganne  (II  9.  y2>)  5  zilotun:  gizeinotun  (IV  37.  17)  ;  zvoroiti: 
ivorahti  (II  i.  37;  III  20.  156;  IV  26.  21)  ;  worolti'.wonanti 
{Y  25.  94)  ;  iingiwifiri:  zvidari  (III  8.  10)  ;  gigarotin  :  gagantin 
(I  23.  13)  :  uiinuduti:  meindati  (I  4.  8)  ;  thanana:  fhegana  (I 
3.  26:  II.  27;  II  21.  39;  III  6.  II ;  9.  3;  20.  3;  IV  7.  I ;  22.  19; 
30.  30;  35.  21;  V  9.  3;  21.  25;  22.  i)  ;  selidon:  salidon  (I  7. 
24)  ;  zaii:eii\  zeliti  (V  13.  12,  14)  ;  sitota:  sageta  (IV  11.  26)  ; 
zisamane-.schanne  (I  9.  7);  zvoroiti'' -.w-unsgenti  (I  11.  32); 
zi'oraiti :  irzi'eliti  (V  i.  2);  irzvorolti'.zvegonti  (I  7.  26); 
lebenti:  giloiibenti  (I  6.  6);  gilebetnn:  lobottm  (I  i.  126); 
drnhtine :  dretanne  (I  4.  46)  ;  gihogeti:  habeti  (I  9.  22)  ;  o-/^j- 
tdti:£rseliti  (IV  11.  4);  Hrlorane'.biladane   (IV  5.  11). 

As  to  our  main  classes,  II  and  III,  it  may  be  stated  that  they 
contain  no  examples  of  the  above,  strangely  enough,  as  Class 
I  shows  a  quite  frequent  usage,  the  proportion  to  the  total 
number  of  rimes  under  this  class  being  36  to  386,  or  i:  ii. 
W^hile  it  is  true  that  the  other  two  main  classes  are  much 
smaller  than  I,  containing  respectively  68  and  95  rimes,  wx 
should,  nevertheless,  expect  several  instances  of  the  above 
type. 

III.  Where  there  is  no  identity  of  the  antepenultimate  vow- 
els, i.  e.  in  three-fifths  of  the  instances,  an  investigation  shows 
that,  as  in  penultimate  rime,  it  is  the  most  similar  vowels  that 
rime  most  frequently,  namely,  a \  0,  a:  e,  and  e :  i.  Rimes  of 
/:  u  are  extremely  rare,  and  several  of  these  are  explained  by 
the  same  rounding  influence  of  a  zv  that  we  have  before  wit- 
nessed in  the  case  of  penultimate  rime  on  page  33. 

^  Note  the  frequency  of  worolt  in  these  combinations. 


48  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID 

As  soon  as  such  a  type  as  sdgetd :  hetota  appears,  there  seems 
to  be  the  inception  of  rime ;  next  comes  the  type  sdgetd :  holotd, 
in  which  the  antepenultimate  vowels  are  similar,  and  finally 
the  accurate  stage  forahta  :  worahta,  with  all  the  stages  between 
that  affect  the  penult. 

Other  Old  High  German  Monuments 

In  order  to  show  the  relation  of  the  other  Old  High  German 
rimed  poems  to  Otfrid,  a  few  words  may  be  said  regarding 
their  rime  usage. 

The  following  percentages '  will  serve  to  show  what  pro- 
portion of  each  poem  is  made  up  of  suffix  rime,  and  how  this 
compares  with  Otfrid's  use : 

Otfrid,  71.7  per  cent;  Ludwigslied,  54.2  per  cent;  Georgslied, 
58.9  per  cent;  Petruslied,  50  per  cent;  Christus  u.  d.  Samari- 
terin,  48.4  per  cent ;  Psalm  138,  40  per  cent.  That  is,  none 
of  the' poems  approach  Otfrid  so  far  as  this  rime  is  concerned, 
as  we  find  him  using  12.8  per  cent  more  than  the  Ludwigslied, 
this  containing,  next  to  Otfrid,  the  highest  amount. 

As  to  the  vowel  of  the  final  syllable,  we  may  perceive  the 
same  care  exercised  as  in  Otfrid,  and  only  very  rarely  do  we 
find  such  vowels  not  identical  except  in  Psalm ""  .138,  where  this 
is  frequently  the  case. 

So  far  as  it  is  a  question,  however,  of  the  identity  of  the 
entire  final  syllable,  it  must  be  confessed  that  one  finds  this 
much  less  often  than  in  the  rimes  of  Otfrid,  as  the  following 
statistic,  showing  the  percentage  of  suffix  rime  with  identical 
final  syllable,  will  show :  Otfrid,  83.8  per  cent ;  Ludwigslied, 
56.2  per  cent ;  Georgslied,  60.6  per  cent ;  Petruslied,  66^  per 
cent;  Christus  u.  d.  S.,  33^  per  cent;  Psalm  138,  28.6  per  cent. 

If  we  proceed  as  previously,  and  divide  the  suffix  rimes  of 
these  smaller  monuments  into  penultimate  and  antepenultimate 
rime,  the  results  are : 

^  See  Vos,  Rime  Parallelism  in  O.  H.  G.  verse,  Studies  in  Honor  of 
B.  L.  Gildersleeve,  p.  441. 
^  This  is  probably  due  to  its  later  date. 


Georgslied, 

727 

Petruslied, 

100 

Christus  u.  d.  S., 

643 

Psalm  138, 

93 

IDENTICAL  RIME  49 

Penultimate   Rime.  Antepenultimate   Rime. 

Ludwigslied,  68.7  per  cent.  31.3  per  cent. 

27.3         " 
^     00.0 

35.7        " 
it  _  li 

Penultimate  rime  forms  87.2  per  cent  of  Otfrid's  rimes,  and 
antepenultimate  only  10.7  per  cent,  the  remaining  2.1  per  cent 
being  made  up  of  penult-antepenultimate  rime. 

There  is,  therefore,  a  less  frequent  use  of  the  former  in  the 
smaller  monuments,  and  correspondingly  more  of  the  latter, 
including  under  both  heads,  of  course,  both  accurate  and  inac- 
curate types.  As  to  other  points,  we  may  notice  the  same 
method  of  rime  as  found  in  Otfrid,  both  as  to  his  tendency  to 
rime  the  prefixes  gi-  together,  and  to  heighten  the  rime  efiFect 
by  identity  of  the  initial  consonant  of  the  penult  or  antepenult. 
Cf.  kiscirres:  kiscephes  (Christus  u.  d.  S.  13);  gidanchun: 
gizuancJwii ;  gkvar:  gipar  (Psalm  138,  11.  5  and  22)  ;  giborana: 
berega  (Christus  u.  d.  S.  29);  fahair.iiUan;  kaiiiaro :  kunin- 
giiiiw  (Georgslied,  11.  36  and  49)  ;  kitoiii:  gekunni;  lides:llbes 
(Ludwigslied,  11.  54  and  51). 

Identical  Rime 

By  identical  rime  is  meant  here  rime  in  which  the  riming 
words  or  syllables  are  perfectly  identical  in  form.  With  re- 
gard to  rime  of  this  sort  B.  J.  V^os  '  remarks  as  follows :  "  To 
a  modern  ear  this  kind  of  rime  seems  objectionable  and  we 
find  that  for  the  Middle  High  German  poet,  too,  it  did  not 
occupy  the  same  position  as  ordinary  rime.  This  is  clearly 
shown  not  only  by  its  low  ratio  of  frequency  but  also  by  the 
limitations  with  which  its  use  was  attended.  Identical  rime 
may  then  be  regarded  as  by  nature  a  makeshift,  used  mostly 
where  there  was  a  paucity  or  entire  lack  of  other  rimes.  From 
this  principle  there  follows  that  as  the  technical  skill  of  the 
poet  developed,  his  recourse  to  this  makeshift  would  become 
less  and  less  frequent.  Alongside  of  this  increase  in  the  poet's 
resources  we  must  suppose  that  there  was  developing  a  finer 

^  Diction  and  Rime-Technic  of  Hartman  von  Aue,  p.  60. 


50  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID 

feeling  for  the  imperfections  of  this  kind  of  rime :  refinement 
of  feehng  for  form  went  side  by  side  with  a  greater  versatiHty 
in  the  employment  of  resources  at  command." 

Zwierzina^  assumes  substantially  this  same  attitude,  and 
shows  with  what  care  the  more  skilful  Middle  High  German 
poets  avoided  its  usage,  as  offensive  to  good  taste. 

In  a  study  of  Otfrid's  rime,  the  question  at  once  arises,  how 
did  he  regard  identical  rime?  Was  his  frame  of  mind  toward 
it  the  same  as  that  of  the  above-mentioned  poets,  or  was  it 
not  displeasing  to  him,  and  did  he  resort  to  it  frequently  ?  We 
know  that  he  uses  various  other  expedients,  such  as  adverbial 
expressions  for  instance,  to  secure  rime,  and  the  question,  there- 
fore, presents  itself  whether  he  perhaps  makes  so  free  a  use 
of  identical  rime  that  it,  too,  may  be  regarded  as  due  to  the 
same  exigency;  or  whether  in  certain  books  a  decrease  can  be 
traced. 

W.  Grimm  ^  has  already  enumerated  the  instances  of  identi- 
cal rime,  but  there  are  quite  a  number  of  omissions,  and  many 
of  the  rimes  cited  by  him  have  to  be  excluded,  not  only  accord- 
ing to  the  definition  above  given,  but  also  according  to  Grimm's 
own  definition.^  These  cases  will  be  discussed  in  their  proper 
place.  It  was  such  circumstances  as  these  that  made  a  fresh 
classification  of  Otfrid's  identical  rimes  and  an  effort  to  estab- 
lish his  point  of  view  seem  desirable. 

We  may  classify  the  instances  under  the  following  cate- 
gories : 

I.  Complete  identity  of  the  riming  words,  both  in  form  and 
meaning.     Cf.  ist :  ist;  thir :  thir;  mlmt :  mimi. 

II.  Complete  identity  in  form,  difference  in  use  or  meaning. 
Cf.  sin  (inf.)  :  sui  (pron.)  ;  lihe  (noun)  :  libe  (verb)  ;  eino 
(adj.)  :  eino  (adv.). 

III.  One  rime  word  is  identical  in  form  with  part  of  the 
other. 

A.  The  riming  parts  are  from  the  same  stem. 

a.  Simplex :  compound.    Cf.  richi:  himilrlcJii;  kind'.the- 
gankind. 

'ZfdA.,  45,  286  f.,  "der   rfihrende  reim." 
^Kleinere  Schriften  4,  159  i. 
'  P.  31. 


IDENTICAL  RIME  5 1 

B.  Riming-  parts  are  not  from  the  same  stem. 

a.  Simplex :  compound.  Cf.  antwurti  (noun)  :  zvurfi 
verb)  ;  in  alwari :  zvari  (verb). 

/3.  Simplex :  secondary  syllable  or  syllables.     Cf.  iiote : 
cinote :  sim  :  Jicrasioi;  )idt:  giredijwt. 
I\".  Tlie  parts  preceding  the  rime  syllables  are  dissimilar. 

A.  Dissimilar  prefixes.     Cf.  iirliad\hiliazi;  bigeigige. 

B.  Adverbs  in  -licho.     Cf.  iogilicho :  guallicho ;  baldltcho: 
thcganUcho. 

C.  Compounds  in -/I/z.     Ci.  stiviillJi :  giliJi. 

D.  Others.      Cf.    iimbiring    (adv.)  :  woroltring    (noun)  ; 
tharasiin  (adv.)   :  drutsun  (noun). 

We  shall  now  take  up  these  categories  in  turn,  state  the  num- 
ber of  occurrences  of  each  combination'  in  the  several  books, 
and,  where  it  seems  desirable,  discuss  the  instances : 

I.  Complete  identity  of  the  riming  words,  both  in  form  and 
meaning. 

A.  Parts  of  the  verb  "  to  be  "  :    ist  :ist  {I  i;ll  ^',  III  2)  ; 
was :  was  {1  2)  ;  si:  s'l''  (III  2 ;  V  7) . 

B.  Pronouns. 

a.  Personal :  thir:  thir  (II  2 ;  III  i)  ;  thih  :  thih  (V  2)  ; 
mill :  mih  (III  1)  ;  iniin  (I  i ;  III  2 ;  IV  3 ;  V  2)  ;  iu :  iu 
(III  i;  IV  5;  V  I). 

^.  Demonstrative:  thaz'.thaz  (II  i;  III  7;  V  i)  ; 
thes:  thes  (V  i)  ;  thiw.  thin  (II  2;  III  3;  IV  2). 

y.  Possessive:   mm:  mm  (III  i)  ;  mimt'.mmti  (III  i). 

8.  7iiwtht :  niwiht  (II  i). 

C.  Adverbs  :    to  :  io  (I  1) . 

Summary  :    I  5  ;  II  10 ;  III  21 ;  IV  10 ;  V  14  =  60. 

Of  two  other  examples,  the  one,  eigi  (vb.)  :  eigi  (vb.)  is  re- 
jected by  Grimm  because  Ms.  F  has  neigi  in  one  case;  it  has 
therefore,  not  been  included  here.  The  other  instance  is  found 
in  III  7.  42,  goiima:  goiimd  (nim  es  harto  gouma,  thiz  sint 
thio  selbun  gouma).  These  two  words  are  not  identical  in 
meaning  and  cannot,  therefore,  with  Grimm,  be  classed  under 
the  above  category-;  for  the  phrase  gouma  neman  in  the  sense 

^  Six  of  these  rimes  in  Book  V  occur  in  a  refrain  in  Chapter  I. 


52  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID 

of  "  wahrnehmen,  beachten,"  introduces  an  appreciably  differ- 
ent use  of  the  word  from  that  of  the  nominative  plural  in  its 
regular  substantive  meaning. 

The  rimes  of  this  class  are  then,  with  the  single  exception 
of  io :  io,  parts  of  the  verb  '  to  be/  or  are  pronouns ;  excluding 
mmii  and  niwiht  they  consist  only  of  monosyllabic  words. 
Their  unequal  distribution  in  the  various  books  must  also  be 
noticed,  for  while  III,  with  21  instances,  leads  the  list,  IV,  of 
equal  length,  has  only  half  as  many  identical  rimes;  likewise, 
II,  of  the  same  length  as  I,  has  double  the  instances  of  I, 
w^hich  contains  the  fewest  examples.  While  the  number  of 
these  rimes  may  seem  rather  large  in  itself,  it  should  be  borne 
in  mind  that  this  class  contains  less  than  one-fifth  of  the  total 
amount  of  identical  rime.  The  words  used  are  of  common 
occurrence,  and  are  found,  for  the  most  part,  frequently  in 
rime.  An  examination  of  the  rime  endings  in  which  they  figure 
shows  that  Otfrid  had  three  options  for  rime:  (a)  another 
root  syllable;  (b)  identical  rime;  (c)  inflectional  syllable. 
Although  accurately  riming  words  under  (a)  are  as  a  rule 
limited  in  number,  his  preference  for  them  as  over  against 
those  of  (c)  is  shown  by  the  number  of  times  these  combina- 
tions occur,  the  words  found  most  frequently  in  identical  rime 
being  those  used  most  often  in  conjunction  with  other  root 
syllable  rimes."^ 

The  fact,  then,  that  there  is  a  somewhat  numerous  represen- 
tation of  this  class,  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  Otfrid  had 
an  inclination  towards  such  rime.  It  seems  to  be  rather  a  ques- 
tion of  rime  expediency,  an  effort  to  rime  root  syllable  with 
root  syllable,  this  effort  resulting  at  times  in  identical  rime; 
but  that  there  is  a  tendency  to  differentiate  to  a  certain  extent 
between  identical  rimes  may  be  seen  from  the  discussion  under 
Class  II. 

We  now  proceed  to  an  examination  of  the  rimes  of  Class  II. 

^  tJiac:  tJwj:,  9;  but  cf.  thaz'.zvas,  44;  -.has,  9;  :  alloc,  13;  :  hcbigac, 
7;  :  s'lnaa,  7.  ist :  ist,  7;  cf.  ist:  hist,  15;  :  krist,  8;  :  frist,  7.  thir:  thir, 
3;  cf.  thir:  mir,  27.  thih:  thih,  2;  cf.  thih:  mih,  8;  :  sih,  4.  mih:  mih,  i. 
in:  in,  8;  cf.  in:  bin,  7;  :ln,  8  (see  under  Class  II).  mm  (poss.)  :  mm 
(poss.),  i;  cf.  mm:sm,  42;  :  thin,  11.  iu:iu,  7;  thiu:thiu,  7;  cf. 
iu :  thiu,  17. 


=    6 
=     I 


IDENTICAL  RIME  53 

Tn  this  class  we  find  complete  identity  in  form,  difference  in 

use  or  meaning. 

^7;/  (pron.)  :  sm  (inf.)  I  i ;  II  i ;  HI  I ;  IV  i ;  V  i  ^ 

^'7;/  (pron.)  :  .s-7//  (subj.  vb.)  Ill  I 

cr  (pron.)  :  cr  (adv.)  I  i 

ubaral  :al  (pron.)  II  i  ~     o 

/;/  (pron.):  7;/  (adv.)  II  I  ;  III  2;  IV  4;  V  I  =     8 

mill  (poss.  pron.)  :  mln  (pers.  pron.)  IV  i  —     i 

]}iaht  (noun)  :  maht  (vb.)  Ill  i  =     ^ 

ciiio  {^(\\.):ci)io  (adj.)V  i  =     ^ 

Ilbc  (noun)  :  Ube  (verb)  III  i 

zi'lsn  (noun)  :  zi'lsu  (adj.)  Ill  i 

goiima  (verbal  expression)  :  gouma  (noun)  III  i 

zi'iiiuil  (noun)  :zvuiini  (verb)  III  i 

Total  =  23 

Summary  :    I  2  ;  II  4 ;  HI  8 ;  IV  6 ;  V  3  =  23. 

Here,  as  in  the  preceding  class,  Book  III  contains  the  great- 
est number  of  examples  and  Book  I  the  fewest.  The  rimes 
present  a  more  varied  aspect  than  in  Class  I,  not  being  limited 
to  monosyllables. 

The  two  most  frequent  rimes  under  this  group  are  in  (pron.) 
:  In  (adv.),  occurring  8  times,  and  sin  (pron.)  :  sJn  (vb.),  with 
6  examples.     There  are,  however,  no  rimes  of  sm  (vb.)  :sm" 
(vb.),  or  of  sin  (pron.)  :  sin  (pron.). 

These  forms  are  the  more  interesting  because  they  indicate 
a  tendency  on  the  part  of  Otfrid  (a)  to  distinguish  quantity, 
and  (b)  to  differentiate  between  identical  rimes.  In  the  nmes 
of  in  :  in  the  quantity  is  preserved  at  the  expense  of  differentia- 
tion of  grammatical  form;'  whereas,  in  the  in:  In  rimes  the 
opposite  is  true,  as  also  in  er :  er,  no  case  of  er :  er  or  er :  er  bemg 
found.     In  sur.sln  we  find  a   different  state  of  affairs,   for 

^  The  only  forms  in  question  are,  of  course,  the  infin.  and  the  i  and  3 
p.  pi.  pres.  subj.  The  former  appears  in  rime  33  times,  while  of  the 
latter,  i.  e.  subj.,  only  9  rimes  are  found. 

^'This  fact  should  be  taken  into  consideration  along  with  the  state- 
ment under  Class  I,  in  explaining  the  frequency  of  in:  in  and  mm 
:  ))un  rimes. 


54 


SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID 


here  we  can  have  a  dififerentiation  of  grammatical  function 
combined  with  an  observance  of  quantity.  Hence,  there  was 
no  need  of  combining  sin  (vb.)  with  sin  (vb.)  or  sin  (pron.) 
with  sin  (pron.).  Neither  do  we  find  any  rimes  of  sin  :  sin 
(noun),  where  there  would  be  a  difference  of  quantity.  In 
like  manner  we  have  mm  (poss.)  :  mm  (poss.)  and  mm  (poss.) 
:  mm  (pers.)  in  preference  to  a  mm :  min  rime. 

Class  III.  One  rime  word  is  identical  in  form  with  part  of  the 
other. 

A.  The  riming  parts  are  from  the  same  stem. 

a.  Simplex :  compound,  riche:  himUriche  (I  i;  II  i)  ; 
richi:  himilrichi  (II  2;  IV  i ;  V  3)  ;  richi:  kuningrichi  (IV 
i)  ;  richi :zv or oUrichi  (V  i)  ;  riches :  himilriches  (III  i)  ; 
thegankind:  kind  (I  i)  ;  ditam  \  wisduam  (I  i)  ;  ummahti: 
mahti  (III  i)  ;  alalichi :  llchi  (IV  i)  ;  guallichi:  lichi  (IV 
2);  heit:  zagaheit  (IV  i)  ;  wiht :  niawiht  (I  i  ;  II  i  ;  V 
i)  ;  wurti  (vb.)  :  Hrwurti  (vb.)  (I  i)  ;  wiirti :  giwurti  (III 
i)  ;  wurtin:iirwurtin  (III  i)  ;  wirdit :  iirwirdit  (II  i)  ; 
werde :  Hrwerde  (III  i)  ;  ward :  giward  (II  i)  ;  Idset: 
hilazet  (II  i)  ;  giheizan:  heizan  (II  i;  III  i)  ;  bihiazi: 
hiazi  (IV  i)  ;  iirndmln:namm  (II  i)  ;  giUgg^'-ligge  (III 
i)  ;  Urbdrun:  bdriin  (IV  i)  ;  giang :  zigiang  (II  i)  ;  gab: 
iirgab  (V  i)  ;  ungerno:  gerno  (I  i)  ;  iamerimer  (II  i). 
Summary:    16;  II  11;  III  7;  IV8;  V6  =  38. 

B.  Riming  parts  are  not  from  the  same  stem. 

a.  Simplex :  compound,     antwurti  {nonn)  :  wurti  (vb.) 

II  I ;  IV  I ;  giwurti  (noun)  :  wurti  (vb.)  Ill  3 ;  IV  2 ;  V  i ; 
giwerde  (wk.  vb.)  :  werde  (st.  vb.)  Ill  i ;  in  alazudri:  wdri 
(vb.)  I  I ;  II  I  ;  III  I  ;  V  2;  w  alawdr:wdr  (adv.)  I  i ; 
in  giwdri:  wdri  (vb.)  Ill  i ;  wizzi  (noun)  :  Uruzvizzi  (noun) 

III  2 ;  V  I  ;  wizzi  (noun)  itwizzi  IV  2 ;  sculdheizo  (noun) 
:  heizo  (adj.)  IV  i ;  III  i ;  machon  (inf.)  :  gimachon 
(noun)  I  I ;  gib  erg  e  (vb.)  :  berge  (noun)  II  i ;  Urburgi 
(vb.)  :  burgi  (noun)  IV  i ;  houbit  (noun)  :  manohoubit 
(noun)  II  i;  githankon  (noun)  :  thankon  (inf.)  Ill  i; 
dleibo  (noun)  :  leibo  (noun)  III  i ;  fazzon  (inf.)  :  lioht- 
fazzon  (noun)  IV  i ;  annuzzi  (noun)  :  nuzzi  (adj.)  IV  i ; 
siimillche  {3.dj.)  :  liche  (vb.)  V  i;  tharaln  (adv.)  :  m 
(pron.)  IV  I. 


IDENTICAL  RIME  55 

Summary  :    I  3  ;  IT  4  :  HI  1 1  ;  IV  lo ;  V  5  =  33- 
In  this  class  the  riming  parts,  in  addition  to  being  from  dif- 
ferent stems,  are  usually  words,  or  parts  of  words,  that  are 
different  parts  of  speech. 

13.  Simplex :  secondary  syllable  or  syllables,   note :  einote 
(I  I  ;  II  2)  ;  noti-.thionoti  (I  i ;  V  i)  ;  noti:  ebonoti  (I  i 
III   i);  ndtiwegonoti  (II   i)  ;  noti;  gisamanoti  (III  2) 
ndti-.stcindti    (III    i);    ndtin'.steinotin    (III    i)  ;    notin 
zvarnofin  (IV  i),  thunih  ndtiredinot  (I  i;  IV  i;  V  i) 
thiintJi  ndt'.nrdamndt  (III  i;  V  i)  ;  gieinot  (III  i;  IV 
I);  biseganot  (V  i)  ;  gisamndt  (V  i)  ;  ^^einot  (IV  2); 
plnot    (IV    i);    in    ndt:minndt    (II    i)  ;    ndt'.nrdamndt 
(II    i;  V   i);  weinot    (IV   i)  ;   hentiirouhenti   (I   i)  ; 
iinhenti  (I  2)  ;  gof.bredigot  (V  i)  ;  bimunigot  (IV  i)  ; 
lante-.heilante   (V  i)  ;  lanf.heilant  (I  3;  III  2;  IV  2); 
sun:hcrasun   (I   i;  II  10;  III  3;  IV  4;  V  2)  ;  tharasim 
(I  2;  II  2;  III  2);  heimortsun   (II  i)  ;  wisun  (II  5); 
mammiinti\miinti'   (V  14);  si:Pcrsi   (I   i)  ;  zvisi  (I   i; 
III  I :  IV  2 ;  V  i)  ;  in  gizvissi  (III  i ;  IV  2 ;  V  2)  ;  Urstant- 
nissi  (II  I)  ;  so :  giwisso  (III  6 ;  IV  2 ;  V  i)  ;  zvasso  (I  i)  ; 
^^zVo   (V  2);  mm :  nrnamm   (III  i)  ;  fjnnu:nu   (IV  i)  ; 
dothcs-.thes  (IV  I);  nirknaist:  ist   (V  i)  ;  /e'^:a//^^  (V 
i)  ;  erdringe:  ge  (II  i). 
Summary  :    I  16 ;  II  25  ;  III  23  ;  IV  22 ;  V  32  =  1 18. 
In  this,  the  largest  class  thus  far,  not  and  its  inflected  forms, 
mostly  in  adverbial  phrases,  are  very  numerous,  riming  usually 
with   the   third   singular   present   indicative   or   with   the   past 
participle  of  verbs  of  the  second  weak  conjugation.     Also  the 
noun  sun  with  hcrasun  and  tharasun,  so  with  gizvisso,  si  with 
wisi,  lant  with  heilant  and  various  other  forms  are  frequent. 

Under  this  heading  Grimm  classes  rimes  which,  according 
to  the  definition  of  identical  rime  abpve  given,  would  not  belong 
here.  Some  of  his  examples  are:'  rehtaz:thaz;  iiiazantaz'. 
thaz;  sclnantazithaz;  hcimortes:  thes;  mithontes'.thes;  nahtes 
itJics;  muatcs'.thes;  widarstantanne:thanne,  and  also  blidaz: 
thaz;  'furdir  :  thir;  sindes  :  thes  and  Undo  :  tho.     While  Grimm's 

'  Cf .  Refrain  V  23. 


56  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OFF  RID 

dictum  '  Da  volliger  Gleichlaut  der  Vocale  imd  Consonanten 
nicht  notwendig  ist,'  and  the  orthography  of  Ms.  F '  would 
claim  these  examples  as  identical  rimes  they  clearly  do  not,  in 
view  of  the  well-defined  shifting  of  initial  and  medial  th  in 
Otfrid  ^  come  within  the  scope  of  our  definition  of  Identical 
Rime. 

A  similar  observation  applies  to  such  rimes  as  niiiates:  thes 
which  Grimm  has  also  grouped  under  this  head.  Similarly, 
for  vocalic  reasons,  minno'.manno,  etc.  (which  have  above  ^ 
been  discussed  from  an  entirely  different  point  of  view),  and 
for  both  vocalic  and  consonantal  differences,  terren'.  thiirren, 
etc.,  cannot  be  included  in  this  category.^  Also  duam  and  its 
compounds  in  rime  with  duan  (inf.)  must  also  be  rejected  on 
the  same  ground. 

IV.  The  parts  preceding  the  rime-syllables  are  dissimilar. 

A.  Dissimilar  prefixes.  Cf.  Hrliazi'.  giliam  (IV  i)  ;  biliazi 
(II  i)  ;  bisiiiches:  gisifiches  (III  i)  ;  bisuichi:  gisiiichi  (III 
i)  ;  gillchaii :  niissilichan  (III  i)  ;  gisuikJiit :  bisntkhit  (V 
i)  ;  bige-.gige  (V  i). 

Summary :    I  o ;  II  i ;  III  3  ;  IV  i ;  V  2  =  7. 

B.  Adverbs  in  -Ilcho.  Cf.  iogilicho:  gnallicho  (I  2); 
forahtlicho  (Ii;IIi;Vi);  driulicko  (I  i)  ;  giwaralicho 
(I  I ;  II  I ;  III  i)  ;  frazvaUcho  (II  3)  ;  hcrlicho  (I  i)  ;  kraft- 
llcho  (I  I ;  II  i;  IV  i;  V  i)  ;  baldUcho  (I  i)  ;  gilicho 
(noun)  (III  i;  V  i)  ;  gomilicho  (I  i)  ;  blldllcho  (II  i) 
III  gilicho  (II  i)  ;  dm  gilicho  (II  i)  ;  geistlicho  (II  2;  V  i) 
iingisewanlicho  (II  i)  ;  garalicho  (II  i)  ;  folllcho  (II  i 
III  i)  ;  wenagUcho  (III  i)  ;  jdmarlicho  (III  i)  :  theganlicho 
(III  i)  ;  suazlicho  (IV  i)  ;  liublicho  (IV  2)  ;  gilicho  (adv.)  : 
frawallcho  (I  i)  ;  kuninglicho  (IV  i)  ;  forahtlicho  (V  i)  ; 
baldlicho  :fhcganlicho  (IV  i)  ;  herlicho  :  gnallicho  {IV  i). 
Total:    I  10;  II  14;  III  6;  IV  7;  V  5  =  42. 

'  Kl.  Schr.  IV,  162. 

^  Cf.  blldac:  da;::;  furdir:  dir ;  sindes:  dcs;  Undo:  do,  etc.;  also  muates: 
des;  rehtas:  daz;  nahtes:  dcs,  etc. 
'  Braune,  Ahd.  Grammatik,  §§  167,  A.  4,  163,  A.  2,  3. 

*  P.  31. 

^  Other  examples  which  Grimm  includes  under  this  class,  and  which 
are  excluded  here  are:     minn  :  urminnu ;  gifnah:nah;   bibinota:  notta. 


IDENTICAL  RIME  57 

C.  Adjectives  in  -////.  Cf.  simiUlh:  gil'ih  (III  i)  ;  giliimf- 
riJi:gUlIi  {I  i)  ;  iagillh  :  sanialih  (V  i)  ;  zvortogillh:  sama- 
llh  (I  i). 

Total:     I  2;  III  i;  V  I  =  4. 

In  the  case  of  the  -IlcJio  adverbs  above  several  points  are 
deserving"  of  our  attention : 

I.  They  occur  frequently  in  identical  rime,  in  42  couplets. 

II.  Of  the  above  total,  37  are  rimes  of  iogilicho  and  3  of 
gil'icho,  neither  adverb  being  found  outside  of  rime;  38  of 
these  are  with  another  -I'lcho  adverb,  the  remaining  two  being 
with  the  noun  gil'icho.  Furthermore,  iogilicho  is  used  almost 
exclusively,  i.  e.  in  34  instances,  in  the  first  half  line.  Of  the 
gil'icho  rimes,  two  are  in  the  first  and  one  in  the  second  half 
of  the  line. 

III.  The  -licho  adverbs,  exclusive  of  iogilicho,  appear  both 
in  and  outside  of  rime.  There  is  a  total  of  78,  of  which  44 
are  used  in  rime.  Of  this  latter  number  38  are  rimes  with  the 
adverb  iogilicho,  there  being  only  4  cases  of  -Itcho :  -I'lcho. 
The  remaining  two  rimes,  not,  however,  identical,  are  with  the 
adjective  rlcho. 

Keeping  the  above  points  in  mind,  we  may  first  ask  our- 
selves why  iogilicho  is  limited  to  rime  position  in  Otfrid?  This 
adverb  is  not  found  elsewhere  in  O.  H.  G.  rimed  verse,  and 
adverbs  in  -llcho  occur  only  a  single  time.^ 

In  the  literature  of  the  transition  period '  to  ^Middle  High 
German  we  have  a  state  of  things  similar  to  that  found  in 
Otfrid :  geliche  occurs  only  once  or  twice  outside  of  rime  posi- 
tion in  all  the  literature  examined,  and  its  most  frequent 
rime  word  is  with  r'lche;  it  never  rimes  with  itself,  and  only 
rarely  with  other  -I'lchc  adverbs,  differing,  then,  from  Otfrid 
in  the  latter  point.     Gel'ich  is  found  more  frequently  (in  about 

^  EUianl'icho,  Ludwigslied,  1.  42,  not  in  rime. 

'  For  the  literature  examined  cf.  MSD :  Kleinere  deutsche  Gedichte 
des  XI.  und  XII.  Jahrhs.,  pub.  by  Waag,  Halle,  1891 ;  Deutsche  Gedichte 
des  12.  Jahrhs.,  pub.  by  C.  Kraus,  Halle.  1894;  Deutsche  Gedichte  des 
II.  und  12.  Jahrhs.,  pub.  by  Diemer,  Wien,  1849.  For  the  Genesis  and 
Exodus  cf.  Hoffmann,  Fundgruben,  II,  9  f. ;  Genesis  und  Exodus  nach 
der  Milstater  Hs.,  pub.  by  Diemer,  Wien,  1862 ;  Kossmann,  QuF.,  57. 


58  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID 

one-half  the  total  rimes)  joined  with  forms  in  -ich,  it,  too, 
being  almost  entirely  limited  to  rime  position. 

The  other  adverbs  in  -liche,  as  in  Otfrid,  are  found  well  rep- 
resented both  in  and  out  of  rime,  and  here  again  rlche  is  the 
most  common  rime  companion;  rimes  of  -liche : -liche  are  not 
infrequent,  though  not  found  as  often  as  those  in  -Itch :  -lich, 
which  cover  one-fourth  of  the  total  instances  of  the  latter  in 
rime/ 

In  classical  Middle  High  German,  as  e.  g.  in  Hartmann  and 
Wolfram  giltche  occurs  both  in  and  outside  of  rime,  so  that 
its  use  is  not  restricted  in  them  to  rime  position,  as  in  the  litera- 
ture examined  above.  It  was  already  noted  that  iogilicho  ap- 
pears predominantly  in  Otfrid  in  the  first  half  line  (i.  e.  34:  6)  ; 
and  if  we  examine  a  few  of  these  rimes  it  will  become  clear 
that  the  appearance  of  iogilicho  is  to  be  explained  as  a  mere 
expedient  for  securing  rime  with  the  -licho  adverb  in  the  sec- 
ond half  line.  Its  meaning  of  ''  ever,  always  "  would  easily 
lend  itself  to  this  purpose,  as  the  word  could  thus  be  added 
without  materially  changing  the  sense  of  the  line.  Further- 
more, it  will  not  seem  strange  that  we  find  so  many  rimes  of 
this  colorless  iogilicho  with  the  -lie ho  adverbs,  which  latter 
occur  only  4  times  together,  when  we  remember  that  outside 
of  rlcho  there  are  no  other  rime  endings  in  -icho  that  could  be 
used  with  these  -licho  adverbs.  Otfrid  was,  therefore,  forced 
to  some  such  makeshift  and  iogilicho  was,  from  its  meaning, 
or  rather  lack  of  meaning,  the  one  chosen. 

A  few  examples  are : 

V  20.  20.  Thara  ferit  al  ingegini :  engili  menigi 

quement  [iogilicho]  :  tharzua  forahtllcho. 

II  13.  14.  Er  wihtes  firsechit,   :  thes  er  mo  zuagisprichit, 
hugit  [iogilicho]  :  zi  theru  stimmu  frawallcho. 

II    9.  14.   Siu  sint  innana  hoi,   :  heileges  giscribes  fol, 

mit  thiu  sie  unsih  [iogilicho]  :  drenkent  frawallcho. 
I  23.  34.   Fuar  er  mit  ther  bredigu :  mit  mihileru  redinu 
Joh  rafsta  sie  [iogilicho]  :  filu  kraftlTcho. 

^  More  frequent  than  the  words  in  these  two  endings  are  those  in 
-lichen,  occurring  about  twice  as  often  outside  rime  as  inside.  Rimes 
with  -lichen  are  common,  but  riche,  r'lchen,  is  again  the  rime  preferred. 


IDEXTIQAL  RIME  59 

II  II.  10.   So    thin    sclben    kristcs    kraftielna    geislun    thar 
.girtaht 
uzstiaz  er  se  [iogillcho]  :  joh  filu  kraftlicho. 

IV    7.  42.   Sine  engila  ouh  in  alawar :  sie  blasent  iro  horn  thar, 
thaz  ckient  sie  [iogiHcho]  :  fihi  kraftHcho. 

lY    I.  18.   Er  zalt  iz  in  ouh  harto  :  offonoro  worto 

thia  saHda  [iogillcho]  :  filu  suazHcho. 
II    6.  13.  Thiu  natara  [iogillcho]  :  spuan  siu  drugilicho. 

Examples  enough  have  been  quoted  to  show  that  if,  in  the 
above  classes,  iogil'icho  should  be  omitted  in  each,  no  detri- 
ment to  the  sense  of  the  line  would  result.  In  many  of  these 
rimes  neither  iogillcho  nor  the  -licho  adverb  seems  of  any 
great  importance  to  the  sense  of  the  line ;  but  where  some- 
thing is  added  it  is  by  the  latter.  In  several  cases  it  would 
almost  seem  as  if  Otfrid  had  finished  out  his  line  so  far  as 
the  sense  was  concerned,  and  then  in  the  space  left  in  the  first 
half  line  had  intercalated  this  colorless  adverb  to  supply  the 
word  to  rime  with  the  second  half  line. 

Zwierzina '  advances  the  view  that  rimes  of  gcllch  and  ge- 
llche  with  other  forms  in  the  suffix  -Ilch  were  not  felt  as  identi- 
cal by  Wolfram  and  Hartmann,  and  are  not  to  be  classed  under 
this  category.  He  remarks :  ''  Der  zusammenhang  von 
'  gleich  '  und  der  adjectiv-ableitung  '  -lich  '  ist  heute  im  sprach- 
bewusstsein  nicht  mehr  vorhanden,  und  nur  der  grammatisch 
gebildete  weiss  von  ihm,  aber  audi  dieser  fiihlt  ihn  beim 
gebrauche  der  sprache  nicht  mehr.  So  war  es  wol  auch  schon 
im  13.  Jh.,  waren  ja  auch  schon  damals  gelich  und  -I'lcJi  im 
dialekt  so  vieler  gegenden  lautlich  differenciert.  Nun  reimt 
Wolfram  sein  gehch(e),  um  seinen  tonsilbenanlaut  ganz 
ebenso  unbekiimmert'  wie  in  begreiflicherer  weise  um  seine 
etymologic,  ungescheut  auf  -lich(e)/'  He  then  shows  that 
although  rich  or  rlche  is  the  most  frequent  rime  word  by  far 
of  the  ending  -Ich  or  Ichc,  with  which  he  could  have  rimed  his 
gelich  (e),  yet  Wolfram  rimes  gellch(e)  : -llch(e)  very  often, 
but  avoids  riming  forms  of  -llch(e)  :  -llch(c). 

He  resumes :  "  Aber  nicht  nur  die  verschiedene  bedeutung 
und  function  des  -Ilch  in  gelich  und  des  -Itch  in  der  adjectiv 

'ZfdA.,  45,  p.  291. 


6o  SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID 

composition  kann  der  grund  fiir  Wolframs  verhalten  sein. 
Denn  verschiedene  bedeutung  und  function  haben  ja  auch 
sin  '  esse  '  und  sin  '  suus  '  und  andre  mehr  und  dennoch  reimt 
W.  sie  nicht.  Wir  werden  also  mit  notwendigkeit  annehmen 
miissen  dass  W.  glich,  ungUch  sprach." 

He  also  brings  forward  similar  proof  for  Hartmann  and 
reaches  the  same  conclusion  as  in  the  case  of  Wolfram. 

The  fact  that  Otfrid,  too,  with  his  large  number  of  examples 
of  the  above  rimes,  has  in  nearly  every  case  rimes  of  (io)gilicho 
:-Ucho,  and  only  rarely  -licho'.-licho,  shows  a  state  of  affairs 
similar  to  M.  H.  G.  usage,  but  I  do  not  on  this  account  believe 
that  he  pronounced  (io)gUcho ;  for  it  seems  probable  that  the 
relation  of  geUch  and  the  -llch  suffix  was  more  keenly  felt  in 
this  older  period  of  the  language  than  in  M.  H.  G.,  and  this 
would  operate  against  the  pronunciation  glicho.  Besides,  we 
have  two  instances  of  -Ilcho  :  Iicho,  so  that  this  combination  is 
not  absolutely  avoided,  and  of  the  four  examples  of  rimes  of 
adjectives  in  -lih,  one  is  wortogiWi :  gillh,  which  would  be 
identical  no  matter  how  pronounced,  as  would  two  other  in- 
stances of  iogiUcho:  gilicho  (noun).  Add  to  this  the  still 
weightier  evidence,  that  Otfrid  makes  a  free  use  of  identical 
rime  otherwise,  and  evidently  views  it  differently  from  Wolf- 
ram and  Hartman,  and  it  seems  safe  to  assume  that  gilicho 
was  pronounced  as  it  stands,  with  no  intention  of  avoiding  a 
repetition  of  the  same  sound. 

As  stated  above,  the  frequency  of  io gilicho  in  rime  with 
-Ilcho  would  seem  to  be  due  to  the  exigencies  of  rime,  and  the 
rarity  of  rime  words  with  this  ending. 

D.  Others.     Cf.  umbiring'.woroltring  (V  i.  32);  thara- 

wert:  geginzvert   (V  7.  59);  tharasun:  drutsiin   (II  9.  41); 

antwiirti:  giwiirti  (I4;V  i  =  5);  nrheize:  hikeise  (IV  23. 

28)  ;  antwiirti :  iingiwurti  (III  18.  25).   Also,  riuwon:  giwon 

(III  10.  7);  gidan:  Jordan   (III  22.  67)  ;  in  ginns :  biruwis 

(II  7.  18). 

Total :    I  4 ;  II  2 ;  III  3  ;  IV  I ;  V  3  =  13. 

We  are  now  ready  to  return  to  our  original  question :  How 
does  Otfrid  regard  identical  rime?  If  the  examples  from  the 
various  categories  be  added  the  total  amounts  to  337,  i.  e.  4.7 
per  cent  of  the  entire  poem.     From  the  fact  that  identical  rime 


IDEXTICAL  RIME  6l 

thus  occupies  so  important  a  position,  we  may  assume  that 
Otfrid  felt  no  hesitation  in  its  use.  Its  frequency  finds,  no 
doubt,  its  explanation  in  the  convenience  of  its  use  for  ready 
rime.  It  has  already  been  shown  how,  after  having  once 
rimed  two  words  together,  Otfrid  repeatedly  returned  to  them, 
although  in  most  cases  other  combinations  were  at  hand ;  and 
the  present  case  is  similar,  the  same  purpose  being  subserved. 

Identical    rime    is    divided    amongst   the    various    books    as 
follows : 


I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

Total 

Stem  rime. 

23 

41 

46 

38 

51 

199 

Pen.  rime. 

25 

30 

37 

27 

19 

138 

48  71  83  65  70  337 

The  difference  between  the  books  offers  nothing  especially 
noteworthy,  if  one  bears  in  mind  their  difference  in  length. 
The  firmer  and  firmer  hold  which  identical  rime  takes  may  be 
seen  from  the  increase  from  I  to  II,  both  books  being  of  the 
same  length. 

The  procedure  is  then  just  the  opposite  to  that  of  the  M.  H. 
G.  poets,  an  increase  and  not  a  decrease.  It  might  in  fact 
almost  be  said  that  identical  rime  gradually  becomes  a  fixed 
mannerism  of  our  poet.^ 

^  The  remaining  O.  H.  G.  rimed  poems  are  too  limited  in  extent  to 
afford  a  satisfactory  basis  of  comparison  with  Otfrid.  The  data  are  as 
follows:  Georgslied,  "woroltrlhhi-.himilrihhi,  1.  5;  Ludwigslied  her 
(pron.)  :  her  (pron.),  1-  52,  and  was:  was,  1.  58;  Psalm  138  mirimir, 
1.  21.  It  will  be  seen  that,  so  far  as  this  scanty  material  allows  a  judg- 
ment, the  point  of  view  is  the  same  as  that  which  we  encountered  in 
Otfrid. 


62 


SUFFIX  RIME  IN  OTFRID 


Summary 
In  order  to  present  a  comprehensive  view  of  the  classifica- 
tions of  Otfrid's  rimes,  the  following  statement  may  be  given : 

I  II  III  IV  V         Total 

I.  Stem  rime : 

1.  Identical,       23  41  46  38  51  I99 

2.  Others,       238  342  446  424  355  1805 


261 


383 


492 


462 


406 


2004 


II.  Penultimate  rime : 

1.  Identical,       25 

2.  Accurate,     332 

3.  Others,         448 


30 

347 
395 


37 
432 

493 


27 
418 

509 


19 

463 
463 


138 
1992 
2308 


80s 

772 

962 

954 

945 

4438 

III. 

Pen.-Antepen. 

rime: 

I.  Accurate, 

3 

2 

4 

0 

3 

12 

2.  Others, 

37 

5 

17 

17 

16 

92 

40 

7 

21 

17 

19 

104 

IV. 

Antepen.  rime 

• 
• 

I,  Accurate, 

5 

6 

9 

12 

6 

38 

2.  Others, 

121 

76 

92 

126 

96 

511 

126 

82 

lOI 

138 

102 

549 

V. 

Rimeless  verses :   8 

0 

0 

I 

0 

9 

Total, 


7104 


OF  THE 

''NIVER31TY 


\ 


-'^L  FORN\h 


VITA 

Thomas  Howard  Fowler  was  born  in  Howard  County,  Mary- 
land, and  received  his  early  education  in  the  High  School  and 
Washington  College,  Chestertown,  Md.  He  was  graduated 
from  college  in  1897  and  in  the  following  year  took  his  Master's 
Degree.  He  entered  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  in  October, 
1898,  and  after  one  year  of  graduate  work  became  instructor 
in  ]\Iodern  Languages  in  the  Horner  Military  School,  Oxford, 
North  Carolina,  where  he  taught  during  1899-1901.  He  re- 
turned to  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  in  1901  and  for  four 
years  pursued  graduate  studies  in  German,  Sanscrit,  and  Eng- 
lish. To  all  his  instructors,  and  especially  to  Prof.  Henry 
Wood  and  Associate  Professor  B.  J.  Vos,  he  desires  to  express 
his  sincere  thanks  for  the  inspiration  and  benefit  gained  by 
following  courses  under  their  instruction. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TOT--"'. 


,    „  f^T,-^  ryX'^'^VS 


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